Fairy Tail: A long forgotten Story
by GenesisNB
Summary: Natsu, Lucy, Erza, Gray, Juvia Gajeel and Levy of Fairy Tail visit the Library of Magnolia together with Happy and Pantherlilly. As they find a mysterious golden book, they find out about the S-Class mages Masaaki Yuu Veristia and his Partner Takao Seeken of Perista Heart, and their greatest adventure.
1. A darkness from the ancient times

**A long forgotten Story**

Prologue

A darkness from the ancient times

Centuries ago, when the world was filled with chaos and war, there lived a man with the name Akuma. He and his brother were powerful and gifted mages which were said to even have the potential of bringing peace and order to the world as one day, Akumas brother died in an assassination. When he heard that his brother had been murdered he decided to take revenge on the ones who killed his beloved brother. Over years he hunted down these men and followed his path of darkness and revenge, and sold a price for that.

Over the years a sickness had settled down within him, which began to slowly twist his mind and as he finally fulfilled his goal of taking revenge it was already to late for him.

As he stood over the dead body of his opponent he realized, it wasn't these people who were responsible for his brothers death, it was the sick world they lived in.

So Akuma decided to put an end to this twisted world. To do so, he created a weapon out of the darkness of his soul.

Akuma rushed over the lands like a fierce storm, and one city after an other fell due to his strength. It was the greatest crisis that mankind had ever faced and so the people who had fought each other just a short time ago joined hands to stop Akuma. After countless battles against him and the cult that had gathered around him the freedom fighters finally were able to take him down in a huge battle at the feet of the mountains range in the middle of the country of Ishgal. But even though they were able to defeat Akuma and his cult, they weren't able to destroy the weapon he created. So they sealed it away inside the mountain range so that it may never come to daylight again.

The people began to rebuild the cites and to and the land and soon nothing reminded more of Akumas terror. Over the years the people began to forget about Akuma and his weapon and the stories became legends, the legends became myths and the myths came to oblivion.

And so one knew about what happened at these times anymore when our story begins.


	2. Two weeks of nothing

**A long forgotten Story**

-1-

Two weeks of nothing

Lucy stood in front of the request board of Fairy Tail and looked through the missions, hoping to find something interesting.

„So, did ya' find something?" Natsu asked her in excitement.

„No, not really..." the Stellar Spirit mage sighted.

Natsu let out a moan of frustration and took a look himself.

„What about this one?" the pink haired Dragon Slayer asked, took a sheet and showed it to her. Lucy, who had already turned away from the board, turned towards him again and looked at the sheet, reading it.

„Hm, no..." she mumbled and walked to the desks in the middle of the Guild Hall, sitting down at the first one.

„Come on, we'll even give you the whole award for the mission, won't we Happy?" Natsu asked as he came after her.

„Aye!" the blue exceed answered his question and landed between the two mages on the table.

Lucy sighted and placed her head on her hands while she looked through the guild, without watching something in particular. Everything was going it's normal way. Mira was just bringing the next load of booze to Macao and Wabaka, Cana, Lisanna and the Raijinshuu were sitting together with Laxus at a Table talking, Master was sitting on his regular place on the Bar desk and watched through the Guild. Nothing spectacular was going on at the moment. No Juvia trying the her luck at Gray again, no Erza beating someone up not even a little Brawl. Looking on it from that point nothing was normal at Fairy Tail at the moment, normally it was a loud place and there was always something going on, but not today and that didn't help Lucy now getting her mood up again. She was completely down right now,

„Ok not just right now...", she stated to herself silently.

Actually she was this way since round about two weeks now. She also wasn't on any mission since then and THAT was getting on Natsu's nerves, who wanted to go on a mission with her again.

„Lucy?" he asked, waving his hand in front of her face. „Hey, Fiore to Lucy!"

„Hm?" Lucy said after he got her falling out of her thoughts, „Sorry..." she mumbled.

„What's wrong with you Lucy?" he asked, „You're getting all down and depressed since two weeks now!"

„Yeah, I know." she sighted, „I don't know myself what's wrong with me..."

„Arg!" she said ruffing through her hair „I'm just not motivated enough to do anything, I don't know!" she put her head on the table.

Natsu and Happy were looking at each other, not knowing what to say, when the heard a voice from behind.

„Whoa, just what is going on here?" the voice said.

Natsu jumped up and turned around to see himself standing in front of Gray Fullbuster.

„That's got nothing to do with you, you fuckin' pervert! Mind your own business!" he said to him angrily while giving him a death glare.

„What?!" the ice mage said, surprised by that sudden and aggressive reaction.

„I said mind your own business! Or you wanna' pick up a fight?" Natsu said to him even more angry.

„Just wanted to be nice, you shitty flame! Gray said also changing his voice to a more aggressive tone. „But if you want to get beaten up, just come and get some!"

The two were just about to start beating the crap out of each other, when Happy flew between them, stopping the fight before it really started.

„Lucy is all down and doesn't want to go on a job." he said to Gray sadly.

„Yeah," Natsu said, „she is like this for two weeks now, we even offered her the whole reward just so that we can go on a job..." His angry attire was completely gone.

„Oh man, sounds bad..." Gray said. Their fight just a moment ago was already forgotten. The three said down at the table together quietly and thought about what they could do now. They sat there like that for a couple of minutes when Levy rushed into the Guild, heading straight for Lucy.

„Hey Lu-Chan!" she called while waving her arm.

„Hey Levy-Chan" Lucy said, as she looked into her direction.

„I'm going to the Library Lu-Chan, you want to come with me?" she asked happily and full of excitement. Lucy sighted.

„You know Levy... I, uhm..." she began, when Levy gave her her sad doggy look. With that she really could make everyone do whatever she wanted.

„Come on Lu-Chan.." she said.

The stellar Spirit mage sighted, „Ok, I'll come with you!" she said, smiling at her.

„Yay" Levy said happily.

„Oh to the Library? We're coming too! A voice said from behind, Lucy and Levi turned around. Behind them, stood a grinning Erza, Lucy still wondered how she could always sneak up to her even though she was always wearing an armor.

„Wait, who do mean with we?" Natsu asked from behind.

„Yeah!" Gray said, he could already give the answer him self though.

„You two are come too of course," her voice changed, „Or do you plan on doing something different?" She gave the boys a Do-it-or-I'll-kill-you-glare.

„N-No, o-of course we are coming too!" they stotterd in fear.

„Oh nooo! Gray-sama going to the Library with Juvia's Rival-in-Love?! No way! I''m coming to!" Juvia said, who had just appeared out of the nowhere behind Gray and Natsu.

„Ok, and I'll go get Gajeel!" Levy said happily and ran off.

„It's a pity that Wendy and Clara are on a mission at the moment, otherwise they could come too..." Erza sighted.

„She went on a mission? Alone?" Natsu asked surprised.

„No, she went with Romeo." Erza said with a blink in the eye, but Natsu just looked at her confused. Erza rolled her eyes.

„Forget it." she said annoyed but also amused about the fact that he still didn't understand it.

A few Minutes later everyone was standing at the Gates of Fairy Tail, Levy at the front.

„Ok, let's go, to the Library!"she called out loud, and the seven mages set themselves in motion, Levy taking the lead. The Exceeds Happy and Pantherlilly, who never leaved the side of their Partners Natsu and Gajeel flying beside her.


	3. beginning of a new adventure

**A long forgotten story**

-2-

Beginning of a new adventure

The library of Magnolia appeared to be a small building next to the Cathedral. The sun was reflecting from the windows and the flags over the entrance were moving in the wind when the mages arrived. Levy and the others headed straight for the entrance. Inside they found themselves in a light flooded room, the walls were covered in bookshelves and all few meters stood a few chairs or benches with a table each. On the other side of the entrance was a large desk and behind it sat an old man reading in a big, old looking book. The man looked up as they entered the room. When he saw Levy he began to smile.

„Good morning Levy-Chan!" he said smiling.

„G'mornin' Ojisan!" she said.

„I see you brought some friends with you this time." he said, smiled and nodded towards them as a greeting.

„Yeah," she began „These are Natsu, Lucy, Gray, Juvia, Erza, Gajeel, Lily and Happy."

The eyes of the old man widened and he began to smile. „Gajeel? Isn't that your..."

He stopped immediately when Levy gave him a panicly, begging glance. Gajeel and the others looked at each other confused.

„Ehm," Gajeel began, but he was interrupted by the man, „Ah don't mind." he said laughing.

„My name is Lero, but every one just calls me Ojisan. I guess you guys want down into the great library?"

„Hun? I thought this would be the library?" Natsu asked confused.

Lero and Levy began to laugh leaving the others even more confused.

„Well partly it is," Levy explained, „but what you see here is only a small piece of the Library. You have to know, the Library of Magnolia is a huge underground system and we are just standing at it's entrance. That's why the Underground Library is called the 'great' one."

„Exactly," Lero added, „so I guess I'll let you go down now, that's what you came here for after all, isn't that right?"

„Yeah, it is" Levy responded.

„Then have fun young ones, you know the way Levy." He said smiling and began to read his book again.

„Let's go everyone!" Levy said and headed for a small door between two bookshelves on the backside of the Library. She than took out a big rusty Key and opened the door. As soon as she turned the Key the door swung open silently. Behind it was a dark passage with an other door at it's end. Levy took a torch from the wall.

"Your turn, Natsu." she said and pointed the torch towards the fire dragon slayer. Natsu rolled his eyes and grabbed the torch's tip, just the moment later it was engulfed with fire, thanks to his magic. "There you go..." he said and let go.

"Thanks." Levy responded, took it back and went ahead.

"First time that his magic is useful." Gray said joking. Gajeel laughed silently and Lucy put her hand o Natsu's shoulder to calm him before he would attack Gray. "Hey, just joking." he said as he passed them by, since Natsu had stopped walking.

Levy reached the door first, as she was only a few meters away it swung open silently. Behind it was a room which was barely big enough for the group. Levy waited at the door until everyone had gone inside.

„Everyone, hold on tight," Levy said and went inside as well, the door closed again, „its going down now." Everyone grabbed one of the handles, which were placed on the walls, as the whole room suddenly started moving downwards.

„Dammit, why always vehicles..." Natsu stated before his motion sickness struck him.

„Oh man just get a hold of yourself, that's embarrassing..." Gray said annoyed. But Natsu only mumbled something undefinable.

The room moved for about half a minute before it finally stopped. „Everyone..." Levy said, „Welcome to the Great Magnolia Library!" As she finished her sentence the Wall behind her, rumbled and swung open, giving them a sight on the Library.

The Library was like a huge hallway around fifty meters in height, as well as in width and about 500 meters long. The walls were made out two floors filled with bookshelves and thousands of torches filled the room with a warm light.

„This is...absolutely amazing..." Lucy whispered reverently as everyone stepped out of the elevator.

„Yeah..." everyone else agreed while still looking around.

„It's most likely the biggest collection of knowledge in all of Fiore" Levy stated, „The records reach back even to the time before the Dragon Civil War and the Era of Zeref."

„Hey Natsu," Happy asked the pink haired Dragon Slayer as he flew over to him, „Do you think we could find something about Igneel and the other dragons here?"

„I don't know..." Natsu said, scratching his head, „but it's worth a try!" he said smiling.

„The most books about the times of dragons are at the back of the Library" Levy said smiling, as if she would have known that this would happen.

„Then what are we waiting for?" Natsu laughed. „Let's go Happy!"

„Aye sir!" Happy said and they ran towards the back.

„Hey wait for me!" Lucy said and ran after them.

„Guess we should just follow them, otherwise they maybe wont find the way back here." Erza said, with a smile on her face. „Let's go guys!"

When Erza and the others arrived at the back of the Library, just a few minutes after Natsu, Lucy and Happy, they found them already looking through the books, hoping to hind a hint about the dragons.

"Hey Natsu!" Levy called him.

"Silence! I'm reading..." he called back.

"It would be much faster if you take one of the wind-reading glasses I brought." she said smiling and waved with a pair of glasses through the air. Just a second later Happy flew down, grabbed them and brought them to Natsu and Lucy. "Thanks Levy!" he said and returned to where he was.

"Now to you guys." Levy said and reached into her bag, pulled out more glasses and gave them to her friends. They thanked her and put them on. Then everyone spread throughout the Library's back part, picking random books and sitting down to read them. Soon the only sound in the Library was the rustling of old book pages and the silent breathing of everyone.

"Arg nothing here either, Natsu sighted exhausted. "What about you?" he called through the room. "Nothing..." came from Gajeel and all the others as well.

„Oy Natsu!" he called from the upper floor, „look what I found!"

Everyone looked up from their books to see what the blue exceed found.

Happy was flying down to a big round table on the first floor. In his palms was a slightly glowing, golden book. Everyone immediately gathered around the table to see what the blue exdeed had found.

„Look at this, it's glowing! There has to be some magic within it... Just like on that mission back then" Happy said excited.

"Do you know this one, Levy?" Erza asked the blue haired girl which stood next to Gajeel.

„Well, actually I never saw a book like this before in the Library..." she stated.

"If there is magic sealed inside this book it could be dangerous..." Erza said thoughtful.

„Well there is only one way we find out!" Natsu said determined and reached for the book.

„Wait, we should..." Lucy called but it was already to late, Natsu had already touched to book and it immediately reacted to it. The book swung open and as the pages began to move in an incredible speed, a sudden wind came out of the book, blowing out all the torches in the Library, cloaking the mages in complete darkness. The girls screamed and the boys let out a sound of astonishment.

„Natsu! What the hell did you just..." Erza began to shout, but stopped immediately when she saw what was happening right in front of her.

The book's glowing became more intense, the letters detached and began to float around them in seemingly endless lines.

„This is..." Erza began, her voice filled with reverence.

„... beautiful..." Levy completed her sentence

The book remained float into the air at one point.

"What happens now?" Gray asked silently.

"I don't..." Levy began to answer as she was interrupted.

„LISTEN WELL YOUNG PEOPLE..."

A deep and old voice said suddenly and a shiver ran down everyone's back.

„...TO A STORY, ABOUT A MAN AND A SACREFICE ABOUT LOVE AND HATE, LIGHT AND DARKNESS. HEAR THE STORY ABOUT THE MAN CALLED MASAAKI YUU VERISTIA, MY BEST FRIEND, MY PARTNER AND EVEN TOUGH WE WEREN'T SIBLINGS, THE ONE I CALL MY BROTHER.

MY NAME, IS TAKAO SEEKEN, I AM A MAGE OF PERISTIA HEART AND I WILL SHARE MY MEMORIES WITH YOU TO SHOW YOU WHAT HAPPEND LONG TIME AGO.

SO WATCH AND LISTEN WELL ...

...TO...

...A LONG FORGOTTEN STORY..."


	4. Welcome to Peristia Heart

**A long forgotten Story**

-3-

Welcome to Peristia Heart

„Ah, I missed this little town, ya' know..." a dark blond man said with a happy voice. He was about 1.86m tall, wore a a pair of dark blue trousers together with black boots and a black T-Shirt with a silver bird pattern on his back. Around his hip hang suspenders and he had thrown a black vest over his shirt. Around his wrists were black leather bracelet and a black leather necklace which a silver cross. But the most conspicuous about him were his golden eyes, under the middle long hair.

„Hmpf, I think you didn't really miss the town, but something else. Or should I say someone? Come on it's obviously that you like her more than normal." a dark haired man, who walked directly behind him said with a gin on his face. He was quite as tall as the man blond man and wore black trousers with black boots, as well as a white T-Shirt with the same deep green pattern of a bird on it. On his hip hung a silver sword and his arms were covered in black bandages and he had a black coat, thrown over his shoulder. His black hair was cut short on the sides and longer in the middle. He wore it styled upwards.

The boy before him turned around and folded his hands behind his head with a big smile.

„I really can't hide anything from you, can I Takao?"

„No you can't" Takao said laughing, „I know you just for to long as that you could hide something from me, Masaaki!"

Masaaki turned back again. „I know..." he said nostalgic and looked up into the sky, the moonlight was reflecting in his eyes. „'wonder what she's doing right now..."

Takao made two fast steps to catch up to Masaaki.

„I don't know, but if I would have to guess I'd say she is standing on the Guild's roof, watching the moon and waiting for you to come back from your mission." he said, with a blink in his deep blue eyes.

Masaaki looked at him smiling. „Then I shouldn't make her wait much longer, don't 'ya think so?" he said and put an evil grin on his face „The last one to reach the Guild buys the first round of drinks!" he called laughing and started to sprint towards the building at the end of the road in the middle of the city.

„This bastard..." Takao said, shaking his head in played annoyance. „Just you wait!" and ran after his partner. 

„Haha, I won! First round goes on you, Takao!" Masaaki laughed as he reached the Guild.

„Yeah, yeah I know..." Takao, who arrive just a second after him, said exhausted. He sat up and looked at the Guild's entrance. The Guild was a big and long, red, 2 floors high building with a tower at it's end. On the left, as well as on the right side, were the living rooms of each guild member, right behind the training grounds an the garden. Everything was build in form of the guild sign.

A warm light shined through the windows and you could hear the laughing and singing even from some distance away.

„Seems like nothing really changed during the time we were away, doesn't it?" he said nostalgic

„Yeah, still looks the same as always..." Masaaki agreed, he looked at his partner. „C'mon man, let's get inside and make us a worthy entrance!" he said, and began to smile again.

„Yeah!" Takao answered and together they layed their hands on the doors, pushing them open.

The doors flew open with a heavy crashing sound so that everybody's heads turned into their direction, watching them in complete astonishment.

„We're back guys!" the two shouted and their call was answered by a huge cheering as everybody ran towards them to welcome them back to the guild. After a few seconds the two were surrounded by their friends and guild mates. Everyone began to ask them questions about the way their mission went, after all it wasn't just some random mission the two had just returned from. They had gone on a S-Class mission, and they had solved it just within a few weeks."

„So you have returned already..." a loud voice said, above everyone else. Immediately everybody went to the sides and opened a way right to the two young men. At the end of the path stood a old, white haired man dressed in a white coat which beard the same deep red pattern, which was also on Takao's and Masaaki's back, the guild sign of Peristia Heart.

As Masaaki and Takao saw him they immediately bowed down.

„Yes, Master Hisao, we are." Masaaki said respectful.

„Good..." he said and came towards them watching them with wise eyes. „How did your mission go?" he asked.

„It was nothing we couldn't handle, master." Takao answered his question.

„Very good work, young ones!" he said smiling and layed his hands on their shoulders, „I didn't expect anything less from our strongest S-Class mages."

Masaaki and Takao looked at each other, smiling.

„Thank you, Master!" the two mages said synchronously.

„But that doesn't mean that your done, you still have a long way to go, understood?" he said seriously.

„Of course." the two said.

Master Hisao smiled at them, „But now..." he said „let's leave seriousness for tomorrow and celebrate your comeback!"

The guild, which was absolutely silent during the time the Master spoke, began to cheer, the music began to play again and the two mages were catched by the hands and dragged to the tables. "Come on!" a little boy called and catched their hands and dragged them to one of the big tables. "Yeah, yeah we're coming Elric." Masaaki said laughing and sat down on the table next to Takao. Elric sat down on the other side. "Come on tell me about your mission! Have you beaten a monster again?" he asked with a fascinated voice. Masaaki waited until everyone was silent, since he thought that most of them wanted to know about it as well. It didn't take long until he began to speak.

"Well actually no..." he said and especially the young mages which had hoped for a thrilling story about the two mages beating dangerous monsters made a disappointed sound. "It was quite boring after all, we had to escort a convoy of the royalty from Hargeon Port to the Capital."

That brought a little shine back in the eyes of the young ones.

"And you know what? After we arrived at Crocus we were invited into the Castle and we eve met the King, as well as the princess."

The young ones let out a sound of astonishment as they heard that.

"Is she really as beautiful as everyone tells?" Elric asked him.

Masaaki looked at Takao, "Yes she is." Takao answered, " but if it comes down on Masaaki, she is not even close to "her"." he said with a blink in his eye. Everyone began to laugh and Masaaki to blush.

"Don't worry she's not here" Takao said laughing, "but I'm sure she is waiting for you right now! So you'd better hurry, don't you think so?"

Masaaki smiled and ran towards the stairs to the roof. Takao looked after him and shook his head smilingly, Masaaki really had a crush on that girl. Suddenly Takao had a feeling like someone was staring at him. He turned around and looked into the direction he thought the person was. He searched around between the peoples as he catched the guild-masters glare.

Master Hisao looked at him for a few seconds, then turned around and went up to the second floor where the entrance to the Master's tower was. Takao looked after him irritated as the master's voice appeared in his head.

"Takao, come to my office please, as soon as you can. There is something I have to talk with you about." he said through his telekinesis magic, then the connection ended.

Takao was even more irritated.

"Guys, I'm tired I think I'm going to the dorms now!" he said yawning and stood up.

"Oh nooo..." Everyone said disappointed, especially Elric. "Can't you tell us more about the Castle and the princess?"

Takao smiled about his reaction. "I'll tell you more tomorrow, ok?" he said and ruffed through Elric's hair. He looked up and nodded happily. Takao turned around and walked towards the end of the guildhall. There up a big pedestal, on which the doors to the two dorm areas as well as to the guild tower were located. But instead of taking the exit towards the male dorms, he went up to the guild-masters office, which was located in the 4th floor of the Guilds tower. While he walked up the spiral staircase his thoughts went to what may await him up there. He raised his hand, took a deep breath and knocked at the door which lead to master Hisao's office.

"Come in Takao." the master said from inside.

Takao opened the door and came in, closing it silently behind him.

"You wanted to talk to me about something?" he asked calm but still worried. He wasn't called here for ages, especially since normally the master speaks about everything i the main hall. And that meant that this was about something the other guild members should not hear.

"Yeah..." master Hisao said calm, "take a seat."


	5. The girl and the moon Dark Omen

**A long forgotten story**

-4-

The girl and the moon

Masaaki went up the stairs to the roof of the guild, he couldn't wait to see her. The sound of the rest of the guild became more silent with every step he took. Then he stopped and took a deep breath, as he reached the door to the roof.

He laid his hand on the door and pushed against it. The door swung open without a sound, he stepped outside and the door swung back, right behind him and locked itself again.

And there she stood.

On the other end of the guilds roof leaned a girl on the fence and stared at the moon. She was around 1.70m tall, wore a black skirt with black boots, together with a white shirt. Her blond hair shined slightly silver in the moonlight. Her sight made Masaaki smile immediately, he walked over to her and leaned himself over the fence as well.

"Standing on our guild's roof, staring at the moon. You'll never change won't ya', Mizuki?" he asked smiling.

She looked at him. Her intense silver eyes always made Masaaki shiver.

"As long as the moon's shining, no." she began to smile and looked back to the moon.

"It's beautiful don't you think so?" she then said with a silent voice.

Masaaki looked up to the moon. It was a full moon that night and it shined brightly, cloaking the surroundings in a silver, unreal color.

„Yeah, sure it is..." he said, then he looked at her and again felt this warmth spreading throughout his body.

"Just like you..." he thought.

He closed his eyes for a moment and took a deep breath, he opened his mouth but still couldn't bring himself to tell her, so he just turned around and looked at the moon together with her.

"How was your mission?" she asked after a few minutes.

"It went quite smoothly," he answered, "nothing big, we had to escort a delegation of the royalty of Ishgal from Hargeon Port to Crocus, they were worried that they may be attacked but we didn't have any problems."

"Well that's good, don't you think so? At least better then getting hurt in a fight." she responded. Masaaki nodded in response.

"After we reached Crocus safely, we were invited into the Castle so that the king could thank us personally..." he began to laugh as he thought back. "You should have seen Takao's face as he heard that, and especially when he saw the princess." This time Mizuki laughed as well. It made a warm shiver run down Masaaki's back.

"I think I can imagine it quite well." she said.

"Don't think so." Masaaki said laughing as he remembered the situation. "For that you must have been there to see it. By the way, where have you been? We were searching for you, since we would have liked you to come along again." he asked her.

"I... well... I've got a little garden with some trees a few miles from here. I was there." she said and smiled. "But next time I'll come along, ok?" she asked.

Masaaki began to smile, "Lookin' forward to it." he said happy. "But not right now, I guess Takao and I will take a small break first."

„Of course, come on, let's go down to the others, I guess they're all waiting for you to come back, don't they? Huh, Raiden?" she said, when she called him that name she gave him a knowing glance and began to smile.

Masaaki sighted. „Yeah lets go." he said. The both of them turned around and headed for the doors at the other side of the roof.

„By the way Mizuki..." Masaaki said, in played annoyance „Just how often do I have to tell you to not call me Raiden!"

Mizuki began to laugh, and Masaaki also couldn't stop himself from also doing so.

„I will never stop calling you like this, you know that. And by the way that is just what you get for always playing around with your lightning magic in public, it's just normal that the people start giving you names." she said.

„Yeah, I'm trying to stop with that habit." Masaaki answered and together they went down

the stairs to the guildhall to join the others guild members who were still celebrating the comeback of the two S-Class mages.

a dark Omen

Master Hisao was walking around in his bureau, like he had something on his mind that made him nervous. His office was on the 4th floor of the guild's tower, at the back of the building. It was a big room, on both sides were bookshelves, where everything about Peristia Heart was listed. On the floor was a big, red carpet and on top of that was a big wooden desk in front of a humongous armchair. Right behind that hung pictures of the 3 previous guild-masters together with the guilds sign. In the very middle of the room was a spiral staircase and on the south wall was a big window, through which you could see the whole town.

„What is so important that you call me up here to talk about it, master?" Takao asked serious.

„During your mission..." he began, „...you went into the east of Ishgal didn't you?" he didn't look up and went on walking circles in the room. It wasn't normal for him, normally he was a very calm and collected person. Takao never saw such nervousity in him before and he noticed that he became nervous as well.

„Ehm, yes we did." Takao answered a little bit confused. „Master, what..." he began, but was interrupted by Hisao, who just turned towards him, paying him his full attention.

"Tell me! Tell me everything from the moment on when you left the building!" the master said to him. Takao cringed from the intensity that was in his voice.

„Did you notice anything suspicious there, anything that seemed different, wrong? Even though if it was just a feeling?" Master Hisao said and looked Takao in the eyes, „Anything?"

While Takao looked in his eyes he saw something that he could only describe as fear. A feeling on panic rose within Takao, he had never seen Master Hisao fear something before.

Thousands of thoughts rushed through his mind as he recalled the journey.

"No not really... everything was totally peaceful..." he said. "When we left Kitiro Port we directly took the ship to Hargeon Port, where we arrived nine days later. At the tenth day we met with the commander of the convoy to discuss the route. We decided to take the shortest, direct route to the Councils Headquarters and then to Crocus, so that we would give possible criminals as less time as possible to plan and set a trap. On the eleventh day we left with 8 wagons and 19 royal guards. We went straight to the Councils Headquarters which we reached on the eighteenth day of our journey. Until then there wasn't a single incident. On the twentieth day we left to Capital Crocus where we arrived three days later." Takao finished his story.

Master Hisao continued watching him a few seconds, then he sighted ruminatively and walked towards the window, where he stopped.

„Master, what is all of this about?" Takao asked as he stood up and joined the Masters side at the window. The silver moonlight shined into the room and you could see all the way from the guild down to the port. The moonlight reflected on the waters surface.

„Rumors, Takao, rumors and a bad presentiment. Just like back then..." Master Hisao said with a deep worried voice as he gazed over the town.

Takao immediately knew what he was talking about. The time when Zeref began with his terror.

"I've tried to take a look by myself with my Dream Sight, but something is blocking my sight, I'm only getting glimpses and voices, but what I see and hear..." he looked at the young mage next to him. "It makes me shiver in fear! Something is going on there, you did escort a convoy from Hargeon Port to Capital Crocus, you said that there wasn't even a single problem. Don't you think that's quite off? Normally there's no way such a convoy won't be attacked! And in general there wasn't even one incident in the last time, just like something is gathering everything around him that is evil..."

"The silence before the storm..." Takao whispered.

"A storm with unknown strength and extend..." Hisao agreed.

„Do you think it's him?" he asked.

Hisao looked away from the town to look into Takao's eyes. „Zeref? No, it's not him, it's something or someone different... but it feels even darker then back then... I think, whatever it is, it may become at least as dangerous as him, maybe even..." Hisao stopped as he noticed what he was about to say.

„Maybe even more dangerous then Zeref you think?" Takao asked.

The master looked deep within his eyes.

„Yes..." he said after a moment and a cold shiver ran down Takao's back.

For a moment it became completely silent in the room, the only sound was the laughing and talking in the guilds hall. Takao saw the silhouettes of Masaaki and Mizuki on the guilds roof top below them. They were just about to go back down into the guildhall. Then he finally looked at Hisao again.

„What do you want us to do?"


	6. An act of convincing

**A long forgotten story**

-5-

An act of convincing

In wasn't yet 6 o' clock in the morning as Takao walked through the dorms of Peristia Heart, to where Masaaki had his rooms. He rose his hand and knocked silently. From the inside he heard an annoyed mumbling, he rolled his eyes and knocked again, this time more energetically.

"Get lost!..." Masaaki mumbled sleepy.

"Open up Masaaki, it's me!" Takao said.

A few moments later he heard footsteps and the door swung open.

"Come in..." Masaaki said and ruffed through his hair. He yawned and sat down on a chair behind a table in the middle of the room. Takao closed the door and went after him. He sat down on the other side of the table. He mustered Masaaki, his mid-long hair stood away from his head in multiple directions, completely different from the way he normally wore it.

"So..." Masaaki said, he stopped rubbed his eyes and looked at Takao, like he wanted to read his mind, "...what is it? Especially at this time in the morning..."

"It's about yesterday evening..." Takao began.

"By the way where have you been?" he was interrupted, "when Mizuki and I came back you were gone and you didn't come back at all... man you quite missed something!" he began to laugh as he thought about the night. The guild had celebrated until late into the night, they had drunk and sung a lot. Everyone told story's about missions they had done and places they had seen. Elric had challenged an older mage to a duel and lost very hard, even though he had become stronger in the past month.

"I was at Master Hisao's office..." Takao said calm. Masaaki became silent in an instant.

"What was it about?" he asked his partner serious.

"The Master is worried, he got a feeling like something bad will happen soon. The same feeling as back then, if you know what I mean..."

Masaaki nodded slowly, "He tried to take a look at it with his Dream Sight magic already?" he asked.

Takao nodded. "Yes he did, but it didn't work well. He told me something powerful is blocking his sight, he only sees and hears fragments but nothing makes sense yet... but Masaaki..." he looked deep within his partners eyes. "What he is sees makes him shiver in fear, you know what that means for us..."

Masaaki's eyes widened, "Problems... big bad problems..."

The other mage nodded and went on. "He told me something big will happen soon, in the past month there wasn't a single criminal incident. Normally there wouldn't be a chance that, for example a convoy ,like the one we escorted, wouldn't be attacked... someone is gathering all evil forces around him or is so dangerous that those who know, ran away..."

"The silence before the storm.." Masaaki whispered.

"That's exactly what I said too..." Takao said with a bit of a smile on his face.

"Does he think that it is Zeref?" Masaaki asked.

"It's not him... well that's at least what the master said. But he fears that that "something or someone" is at least as dangerous as the black wizard!" he finished his explanation. For about a minute no one said a word, Masaaki looked down on the table and Takao at him.

"He asks us to go there doesn't he?" Masaaki asked worried and Takao nodded. He sighted and looked at him, "if we take that on, which I guess we will, we need more reinforcement. We wont get that done if our enemy is probably as strong as Zeref if we don't want to use "that"."

"I agree," Takao said. "Master Hisao called out a meeting of the guild masters and also invited the ten and the Council, to get reinforcements for us." he made a small break and went on. "But that will take at least a month... and maybe we won't have that time anymore, I think you know that already..." Masaaki nodded. "So...who did you think of?" he asked him.

"I'm thinking of Mizuki." he said with a destined voice. Takao thought a moment, then he nodded his head.

"You're right, get dressed and come to the guild hall in half an hour, we'll meet there. As long as you are busy I go and get Mizuki." he said and stood up. He went for the door, shortly before he reached it he turned around once more, "And don't be late..." he said with a grin of his face.

Masaaki rolled his eyes and closed the door.

Takao shook his head smiling and went straight for the girls dorm area, he passed the guildhall, which was still empty and went into the girls dorms. He tried to walk as silently as possible since it was basically forbidden for the boys to sneak into the area. A group of girls had complained some time ago because Masaaki and himself always went inside there to visit Mizuki. She always slept quite long and the two had to wake her every time they wanted to go on a mission with her. And each time when they just came by for visiting or for multiple different reasons. Thinking back Takao had to agree that he and Masaaki spent generally more time in her room than in their own. And since the three of them could be quite loud if they want to it's was reasonable that they were thrown out, but still they thought that those girls went a bit over the top. He reached Mizuki's door a also wanted to knock, as he thought that that probably wont work well, so he activated his magic. A small amount of water gathered in his hand, then he placed it over the doors lock and closed his eyes.

"Sorry Mizuki, emergency..." he mumbled and concentrated on the door and on the water. He slowly turned his hand around until a silent 'click' sound appeared. He grinned and pulled his hand back, together with the water. He deactivated his magic and pushed against the door, which swung open smoothly. He went inside and closed the door behind him, he turned around and suddenly saw a big brown object rushing towards him. It hit him right in the face and he fell over immediately. He rose his arms in a defending position.

"Wait, wait, Mizuki it's me Takao!" he called as he awaited the next impact,but it didn't come. He lowered his arms and saw Mizuki standing next to him, with a big wooden stick in her hand.

"What the hell are you doing inside my room?" she asked him with an angry voice.

"We, Masaaki and I, need to ask you something, it's very urgent and that's why I came to wake you up and to take you to the guildhall." he answered and looked at her. Mizuki rolled her eyes and put away the stick. "Then why don't you just knock like every other person does, too?" she asked as she turned around and walked into her room.

"Because normally it's useless to knock if I you expect you to sleep." he answered truthfully, "You remember when Masaaki and I knocked for about one hour continuously at your door until you were finally awake and opened up? I wanted to avoid this, especially since it's basically forbidden to be here for me..." he stood up and stayed at the door.

"But back to business..." he said, "Are you coming with us?" he asked her. For a moment she didn't answer, as she suddenly came around the corner, on her back a fully packed bag. Takao looked at her confused, could it be that Master Hisao already told her about the mission? he thought. "How come that you have your bag already packed?" he asked confused.

She smiled, "Well I expected something like this after you went away that early yesterday. When I tracked you with my Archive, by the way,sorry for that, I found out that you were at the Guild Masters office. I thought he was bestowing you and Masaaki with a new mission. So I packed my things just in case you two geniuses would come to the idea to ask me to come along." she explained with a blink in her eye. Then she passed him by,opened the door and went outside. "Come on!" she called after him "What are you waiting for?"

Takao began to smile and shook his head, then he went outside as well and closed the door behind him, before he followed her to the guild hall. "Coming" he called after her.

As the two mages reached the guildhall there was a burning candle on one of the tables, together with a note. Takao went over to the table and grabbed it.

"That wasn't here a few minutes ago..." he said thoughtful. He turned it around and sat down at the table, Mizuki sat down next to him and looked over his shoulder to see who had left that note.

"It's from Master Hisao isn't it?" she asked him. Takao nodded and folded the paper in the middle, then he put it into his coat.

"What stands in it?" she asked interested, "is it about our mission?"

"Yes it is." Takao responded and looked at her. "But let's wait until Masaaki is here."

"Well good that you don't have to wait anymore then." Masaaki said from behind them and placed his hands on the shoulders of the two mages.

"Mornin' Mizuki!" he greeted her then he looked at Takao and began to laugh.

"What?" Takao asked irritated by his laughter.

"I mean what did happen to you?" Masaaki asked and placed his hand on his face. "You've got something, there." he said and pulled his finger across his own face to show Takao the place.

Takao rolled his eyes as he understood what his best friend meant and pointed at Mizuki. "It was her..." he said. "As I... kind of... sneaked... into her room she hit me with a wooden stick..." that made Masaaki laugh even more and he turned to Mizuki which had became quite red in her face. "Good job Mizuki!" he said and sat down next to her.

"But now back to business... has Takao already told you what this mission is about?" he asked her. Mizuki shook her head,so Masaaki began to explain.

"The Master got the feeling as if something big will happen in the east of Ishgal, soon. And nothing good... he said he would have the same feeling as back then..."

Takao went on with the explanation. "He tried to find out what is going on but he is only getting fragments like something powerful is blocking his sight..."

"But the things he sees and hears with his Dream Sight makes him worry and even fear it. As well he said that the criminal activities have shrunk to nearly nothing in the east, just as if everything evil is gathering in one point. Just like a silence before the storm."

"Master Hisao begs us to go there, to investigate and if possible to beat whatever is there. Because right now it seems like it is not ready to show itself, but when it is at full power, Master Hisao thinks that it could become more powerful than the black wizard Zeref..." Takao finished the explanation. For a moment nobody said a word,then he went on.

"The Master has gone off to a meeting of Guild masters, the ten and the Council, which he had called out. He will try to convince the others and send us reinforcements, but that will at least take the one month, and it's not guaranteed that they will believe him. He grabbed the note in his coat. He tells us not to wait too long before we depart - every day counts. He also tells us to not involve to many people. If it is true what he fears that it could lead to a mass panic and he wants to avoid that from the beginning."

The other two mages nodded agreeing.

"So that is the situation..."Masaaki said to Mizuki. "Takao and I have decided to follow the Masters wish, but we think that we probably won't be able to solve this mission. That's why we want to ask you to come along with us but you don't have to..." he said silently. Mizuki thought a moment then he smiled at him.

"Of course I'll come with you..."she said and began to smile, "If I would let you two go on such a mission alone I could as well destroy the world by myself, we would be doomed anyway!" she finished and began to laugh.

"Hey, we are not that worse!" Takao said in protest, but Masaaki interrupted him.

"Right Takao, we are even worse than that!" he said and began to laugh by himself and also Takao began to smile.

"Right..."he mumbled.

As everyone had calmed down they stood up.

"So when do we start?" Mizuki asked the boys. They looked at each other.

"I would say as fast as possible... how long do you need to pack your things Takao?"Masaaki asked his partner.

"Ten minutes.."he responded and Masaaki agreed.

"Then we meet here again in ten minutes!" Mizuki said an the two mages left towards the dorms.

When they came back a few minutes later, Mizuki was standing at the guilds entrance and looked at the sea which laid silently behind the awaking city. The sun was just rising up and painted the world in a deep red color, which reflected on the oceans surface. When Masaaki and Takao joined her she sighed.

"It feels different, doesn't it?" she whispered.

"What do you mean?" Takao asked her.

"I mean… normally when we leave for a mission, we've got all our friends here saying… good luck...be back soon...we believe in you… but this time no one is here. This time we don't know when or if we'll come back here and what will have changed…" she said sad.

"Sure does…" Masaaki agreed. "But one thing I can tell for sure, we'll come back soon and then… everything will be the same, no matter what we'll find there we will definitely kick it's ass! After all if we three…" he layed his arms around his two companions and looked them in the eye. First Takao, then Mizuki. "...if we three work together were invincible!" he said with a voice which was so destined that it made all worries vanish.

Takao began to smile. "Right!" he said "Let's go kick some ass!"

"Hell yeah!" Masaaki called and let go of his friends. The last one to reach the sea takes the first watch!" he called and ran of.

"Not again…" Takao sighted and looked at Mizuki, but she was already running behind Masaaki.

"Damn it!" he cursed and ran after them.


	7. The masters meeting

**A long forgotten story**

-6-

The Masters meeting

Master Hisao sat in a large bright room at the Councils Headquarters in the heart of Ishgal. On 3 sides stood tables ans chairs, in the middle was a small podium. The light of the sun shone through the about ten meters high windows and a soft breeze blew through the room. His hand went into his coat where he felt the communication lacryma which was still in his pocket. When he arrived at the Councils Headquarters at Era three days ago he was contacted by Takao and is team. They had told him that they left Peristia Heart at the same time as himself, one week before in the morning. They took a ship to Hargeon Port where they arrived only that day, thanks to the wind and Takao's Wave Magic, which helped the to travel faster. They had decided to travel up to Clover Town, where they expected to be in three to four days from that time. Hisao sighted, he hoped that the three would reach the town safely today. They wanted to contact him in the evening of the day where they arrived there.

Hisao stood up and walked over to the window. The sun stood near it's zenith, it was time the first ones would come, after all the meeting should begin soon.

He had invited the Guild masters of all Magic Guilds in Ishgal, as well as the members of the Council. To create more pressure he had also used his position among the ten great holy mages, a just newly formed organization of the Council, where they had collected the ten probably strongest mages of the country, to summon the other nine to the meeting. With a bit luck every person that has influence in the magic world would be here.

The door swung open and Hisao turned around, a group of elder mages entered the room and looked around. As they recognized Hisao they greeted him and sat down on their destined seats. Only one of them headed directly for Hisao.

Hisao smiled as he recognized the man, he was much younger than Hisao and his skin was a bit darker than is own.

"Greetings, Master Hisao," the man said and began to smile."It's been quite some time..."

"Indeed it was Master Aljuni..." Hisao responded and they shook hands. "How it's going with your guild?" he asked him interested.

"Everything's going it's way smoothly." Master Aljuni answered Hisao's question. "So..." he looked behind him, where more mages entered the room. "Will you tell me why you called everyone here?"

Hisao shook his head smiling. "No, you'll have to wait for the other, then I'll tell everyone."

Master Aljuni rolled his eyed and ruffed through his mid long black hair. "Very well..." he sighted smiling. The room was nearly filled now,so the two mages parted and went to their places, to wait for the Councils and the ten's members to enter. The silent talking of the multiple Guild masters was the only sound in the room, until a door at the other side soundlessly opened up and a messenger of the council stepped out. He clapped his hands and everyone immediately stopped talking.

„Guild masters of the various guilds from all over Ishgal, the members of the Magic Council, the members of the Ten Great Holy mages and the the 4 Gods of Ishgal."

The guild-masters let out a sound of astonishment. Normally the 4 would never take part in such a meeting, Hisao began to smile. "Perfect! They really came to the meeting."he thought. Now, everyone in the room would listen more closely to what he would present them soon, because their simple presence in this room would show the importance of today's actions.

After the Messenger finished speaking the Council members, the five Ten Great Holy mages and the 4 entered the room and took their seats on the remaining side of the room. When everyone had sat down and had become silent the Chairman stood up again and looked around.

„Thank you all for coming here today to this meeting, I welcome you in the name of the Magic Council and especially the 4 Gods of Ishgal, who came here from all over this country for this meeting, thank you for your presence." he nodded into the direction of the 4 who appreciated it silently.

„I myself do not know why we came here today, that's why I would give the word now to the one who called us all here. Master Hisao Peristian of Peristia Heart, would you please come before us and explain us the reason of this meeting?"

Hisao began to smile. He stood slowly up and leisurely went to the podium in the middle in the room. There he cleared his throat and looked around before he began.

"Thank you Chairman!" he said calm and reserved. "I want to thank all of you for coming here today, because we've got something very important to discuss." he made a small break and looked around. "We have to discuss our further actions against the possibly greatest danger we have ever faced, and we have to do it fast, before it is to late." All the people were listening closely to his words as Master Aljuni stood up.

"Does that mean that you have facts about the whereabouts of the killing mage Zeref?" he asked surprised.

"No I do not." Hisao answered him with a destined voice. The room was immediately filled with surprised whispering.

Master Aljuni silenced them. "ow do we have to understand that?" he asked Hisao. "Do you mean that there is possibly something even more dangerous than the black wizard out there?"

"That's correct, Master Aljuni!" he answered calm and immediately everyone began to call things through the room and tried to make the others listen to him or her. Hisao watched the spectacle for a few seconds then he rose his white, about two meter long staff and crushed it on the floor. The deafening sound rolled through the room and silenced the Guild masters and the other guest again.

"I've found hints about a great evil force which has located itself in the east of Ishgal! As some of you may know I am a user of the Dream Sight Magic, which I also used to find out what was exactly going on there, but whatever is there was strong enough to block my sight over about one eighth of Ishgal continuously for several days. That would take an unbelievable amount of power which, even though I totally trust in every one of yours powers, I would no one here in this room expect to have."

The people in the room remained silent, so Hisao went on.

"Even though I gave my best I could only break through this barrier for a few moments, but what I saw and heard there is so cruel that I don't even want to speak it out loudly here." he said truthfully and a cold shiver ran down his back as he remembered the scenes.

"But that is not all yet," he went on. "Whatever is there is gathering subordinates, as some of you maybe noticed as well has the rate of criminal incidents in the east of Ishgal nearly fallen to zero. This means that 'it' is strongly gathering subordinates for an attack on the civilian population of Ishgal..." he made a small break. "My friends, this is the silent moment before the storm starts. This is the day before the war and we need to act NOW! before it is to late..." he finished his statement.

The Chairman stood up and looked at Hisao closely as if he tried to find out if he is telling the truth or if he would be tricking them all. For a moment nothing happened.

"What would you suggest to do, if we'd believe your story. What would be your solution of the problem?" he asked him calmly.

Hisao's eyes widened a bit. "I have already sent out three of my best mages, Takao Seeken, Masaaki Yuu Veristia and Mizuki Soramillion. They are my most trustworthy and formidable S-Class mages. In a few years I expect them to even surpass me. They will apparently arrive at Clover Town today evening to investigate the case." he said. "I would beg you to support them with your mages, for the case that my worries are actually true. I decided for myself also to go there as soon as my presence here is not longer needed. We need your support greatly so please. Make the right choice…" he said and gave the speech back to the Chairman who nodded back at him.

"I think we have heard enough now!" he said. "If no one has something to say anymore I would suggest we'd come to a decision." he looked around if anyone would stand up. As nobody did he nodded at Master Hisao, who turned around to leave the podium as someone stood up. Hisao and the Chairman looked at the person. It was one of the Counselors. He sat at the right end of the table. He had long black hair which he wore in a ponytail and wore a long white oat, which beard the sign of the Council. Under the coat he wore completely black clothes, except two silver steel bracers. He had a scar under his eye, which reached from his ear to his nose.

"Yes Counselor Diaphtora, what is it that you want to tell us?" the Chairman asked him. As Hisao heard the name of the man his eyes widened. Diaphtora was said to be one of the strongest active Counselors and as well the youngest. But the most interesting thing for Hisao was, that Diaphtora was said to use the same kind of magic he used. Diaphtora was a skilled and intelligent mage and had earned, even though he was still very young, a lot of respect from the other Counselors but still Hisao had a bad feeling about him. He knew nothing about Diaphtora's past, actually he just appeared one day as Counselor. Officially he was said to be a rune knight commander before but somehow Hisao never believed that story.

"Master Hisao," Diaphtora began. His cold voice made a shiver run down Hisao's back. "I really, really respect you as a great mage, as well as Guild master and member of the Ten and I am really sorry to say but I actually can't really believe your story…" he walked around the table and walked towards the pedestal, which Hisao still stood on to. On the half way he stopped and began to speak again.

"I mean, you come here and tell us horror stories about a great dangerous force in the east of Ishgal. You even call it more dangerous than the killing mage Zeref. I am wondering, why didn't we heard of that something yet? The Council knows every powerful mage on the continent and as far as I remember there is no one we know who could reach the power of THAT man, or do you?" he turned around to the Counselors and looked at them. After a few seconds most of them shook their heads and Diaphtora went on.

"I mean of course maybe our system is not perfect, but I believe it is close… that's why I didn't interrupt you at that point. After all you told us that you had found hints about that person but for me… they were not very convincing…" he made a small break and turned to the audience. "I mean you are telling us to send our best mages to the east of the country, leaving our homes exposed and wide open for the Black Wizard because there are problems with your Dream Sight Magic which, by the way is not 100% reliable, and the fact that the guilds and the police seem to do such a good job there, that the rate of criminal act had nearly dropped to zero in the past month. I don't know about you but for me this is not convincing enough to take the risk to leave my home with less protection while Zeref is still around…"

Hisao had to watch helpless how the audience slowly nodded and agreed his statement.

"I say, we have to fight the real danger, which was and is still Zeref!" he rose his voice by saying so. "I say let's stand up and fight him! He is filling this world with terror for long enough now!" The audience began to cheer at his words. Diaphtora really knew how he could convince people to his opinion.

"Especially since today morning, about two hours ago, a message from an informer in the north of Ishgal reached me, who said to have found out Zeref's actual hiding place!" he said with a energetic voice. The audience gave him a huge applause and Diaphtora bowed down and left for his place again. As he sat down he looked to the Chairman.

"I've got nothing more to say…" he said and leaned back on his chair.

The Chairman stood up and rose his right hand, everyone became silent again and waited for him to say something. "Guild masters of Ishgal…" he said, "It's time for us to take a decision now, every one of you who agrees to Diaphtora's plan may rise his or her hand now please." he said and rose his hand as well. Hisao looked around, nearly every Guild masters was raising their hand for Diaphtora's plan.

"Now those who vote for Master Hisao Peristian's plan, please raise your hand." the Chairman said. Hisao raised his hand and looked around. No one else was raising his hand, no one but one. He looked into the direction of where he had seen the movement and recognized Master Aljuni who had raised his hand as well. HE began to smile and nodded in his direction relieved. "At least one of them…" he thought.

"Very well! Then this meeting has decided it's actions. Counselor Diaphtora I hereby give you the command over the alliances troop, for extinguishing the dark mage Zeref!" the Chairman said with a solemn voice. Diaphtora stood up and looked at the Chairman.

"Thank you, I will give my best!" he said. "This meeting has done it's deeds, we will continuing to plan our further actions tomorrow at sunrise!" Diaphtora said. "Until then you are dismissed."

Everyone stood up and headed for the doors, only Master Aljuni and Master Hisao stayed where they had been. They couldn't believe what had happened just now. Hisao shook his head and looked to Diaphtora angrily who just left the room through a door in the wall. As he noticed Hisao's glance he turned around to him. They stared at each other for a moment, then Diaphtora gave Hisao an evil grin and left.

„Puh, that was a close one… but still… everything's working as planned!" Diaphtora whispered smiling.


	8. Arrival at Clover Town

**A long forgotten story**

-7-

Arrival at Clover Town

As the sun reached the tips of the mountains range in the west Mizuki, Takao and Masaaki went over the top of one of the hills, which surrounded the Village Clover Town, where the three mages had decided to start their mission at, when they arrived at Hargeon Port three days ago.

Since then they only made short breaks for sleeping and eating, that's why also every one of them was quite exhausted.

„It shouldn't be far anymore..." Mizuki said to her two followers which were walking right behind her.

She swifted her hand from left to right, activating her archive magic. The air began to flicker and a second later the console and the screen of her Archive magic appeared in front of her. She stretched out her arms and began to type something into her Archive. The texts and Images flew so fast over the screen that neither Takao or Masaaki could recognize something, but Mizuki seemed to have no problems with that. Her eyes flew from one side of the screen to an other in an unbelievable speed.

"Aha!" she said suddenly and the pictures stopped moving in front of her. She began to type again and a map of their exact position appeared on the magic screen. She took a step to the side so that the two boys could take a better look on the map.

"After what this map shows us, we should be about five kilometers away from the edge of Clover Town, which is…" she leaned to the side to look behind the Archive's screen and pointed towards the hill in front of them. "Right behind that hill over there!"

"Finally…" Masaaki sighted and grabbed his bag, which he had put down on the ground before. "I didn't expect us to reach our destination this fast, but either way… I am damn tired!" he said and looked at his two friends. "And by the looks of it, you as well!" he said and began to laugh.

Takao also began to smile and looked down on himself first and then at Masaaki. "Yeah, but you're not looking fitter as us!" he said smiling while Mizuki only rolled her eyes and deactivated her Archive Magic.

"Come on…" she said, "...take up your things and let's get these last five miles done. We'll find a hotel and then we'll get some rest."

The two nodded and Takao grabbed his bag, then they followed Mizuki which had already walked further again. "Hey wait for us!" Masaaki called but they reached her a few seconds later either way. About half an hour later they stood on top of the last hill. To their feet layed the small idyllic town of Clover. The sun stood right between the mountains now and made their snow covered tip look like they were glowing while it painted the sky in a beautiful mix of red and orange colors. The green of the fields and the trees also seemed to be more intense then normal. The three stopped at the top and made a break to watch the scene.

"Absolutely amazin'..." Masaaki whispered with a reverent voice.

"Yeah…" Mizuki said in the same tone.

Masaaki looked down at her and stopped at her hand. She stood right next to him and for a moment he thought about grabbing her hand, but somehow he threw away the idea. He closed his eyes and shook his head as if he were trying to throw the thought out of his mind as he suddenly felt something touching his hand. He opened his eyes and noticed that Mizuki had just done, what he was thinking about. He felt how the warmth of her hand spread through his body immediately as they watched the sun go down. For a few minutes they stayed exactly like this until Takao grabbed his bag again.

"Come on, lets get down to the town." he said and began to walk down the hill.

Mizuki and Masaaki let go of each other and grabbed their bags as well. They smiled at each other for a second and went after Takao.

"Wait!" Mizuki said suddenly and stopped. Takao and Masaaki stopped as well and turned around to her. They looked at her with a questioning look on their face. Mizuki waved her hand through the air again and activated her archive magic once more. She typed something again and a few moments later she let it disappear again.

"Ready!" she said as she came back to the others.

"What did you do?" Takao asked her confused, but Mizuki only smiled.

"You'll see it later." she said and walked further. Takao and Masaaki looked at each other confused, then they followed her.

As they reached the towns border a few minutes later they began to search for a hotel where they could spent the following nights, until they would find either their target or leave to continue their journey. It didn't take them much time to find what they were looking for since after a couple of minutes Mizuki called the boys over to her and pointed towards a big building on which s wall was a sign which said 'Hotel'.

"What about this one?" she asked the boys as they arrived.

"Why not?" Masaaki said smiling and headed for the entrance. He pushed slightly against the door which swung open smoothly. A little bell which hung over the door began to ring as the door hit it. A young red haired woman which sat behind a reception desk looked up from her book and smiled at Masaaki.

"Good evening." she said with a friendly voice. "What can I do for you, young man?"

"We…" Masaaki began and looked over his back to Mizuki and Takao which just entered the room, "are searching for a room for a few days, do you still have some free rooms for us?"

"That'd be really great." Takao added and also greeted the woman.

"Of course I have." the woman said smiling and stood up. She took out a small key, which hung on a small leather chain on her belt and opened a box, which was standing under her desk and took out three keys. The three mages smiled but the woman didn't give them the keys yet.

"Breakfast is every day at eight o' clock in the morning." she said "and I expect you to behave yourself while you are here." she said with a twinkle in her eye. They remained silent and looked at each other serious before the four began to laugh and the woman handed them the keys over.

"Well talk about the price when you leave, after all it comes down on how much work you leave me when you head back, but now follow me, I'll show you your rooms." she said and went up the stairs which were right next to the reception on the left. The three mages followed her and soon they stood in a big room on which s walls the entrances to the different rooms were located.

"This is the public living room, of course you also have living rooms in you apartments but I always liked these things." the woman said smiling and pointed towards two doors on the opposite side of the room. "Behind these doors are the showers and the toilets, on the right side for women and on the left side for our male guests." she looked at the boys, "You understand? Left side for you, not right side!" she said laughing.

"Yes Ma'am!" Masaaki answered in a played military voice and saluted to her. What made everyone laugh.

"If you have any more questions, you'll find me downstairs." the woman said and left the three mages alone.

"I'd say we go unpack our things now and when were done we go eat something, what do you think?" Takao asked them as the woman went downstairs.

"I agree, Mizuki said.

"No!" Masaaki said and the two looked at him surprised. Masaaki raised his index finger and began to smile. "Shower!" he said and the two began to laugh.

"Very well, Takao agreed, "unpacking, showering and then we meet back here, ok with that?" ha asked his partner.

"Yep!" Masaaki said and everyone left for their rooms. 

About half an hour later the three mages met again in the big public room. Takao who just took a shower ruffed through his wet hair.

"Ok, ready to go!" he said and looked at his partners which nodded and went downstairs.

As they were about to leave the hotel Takao stopped and began to look for the young woman, who gave them their keys. It didn't take him long to find her.

"We'll be back late tonight, hope that's not a problem." he said to her.

She laughed and only waved her hand through the air as if it would be nothing.

"Have fun, as long as you don't make so much noise, that you wake me it's all ok!"

Takao nodded and went back to his friends.

"Can we go?" Masaaki asked him.

"Yep!" he answered and went outside, the other two followed him. The sun had now completely disappeared behind the mountains and only the last remaining light was still to see on the sky. At the same time the moon began to rise and shone down at the city.

A few minuets later the three mages sat down in a small and lively bar, in the middle of the town. They ordered drinks and after a few minutes Mizuki reached for her bag.

"I guess we could try to contact the master now, what do you think?" she asked and placed a small communication lacryma in the middle of the table. It looked like a small blue gem, which was placed on top of a golden pedestal.

Masaaki and Takao nodded and Mizuki tapped against the gem which immediately began to shine. A few moments later the it became less until finally Master Hisao's face appeared on the gem.

"Good evening, Master Hisao!" the three mages said synchronically and bowed their heads.

"Good evening young ones!" he said. "It seems you have already arrived at Clover, didn't you?" he asked.

"Yes we arrived about one hour ago." Masaaki answered. "How did the meeting go out Master?"

Hisao sighted. "Not as good as I hoped it would be." he said truthfully. The three mages gave him a questioning look.

"At the beginning everything went just perfectly and I thought that I would have convinced everyone, but that didn't last very long." He made a small break before he went on. "Maybe you have already heard of Counselor Diaphtora?" he asked them, Takao and Masaaki nodded but Mizuki shook her head so the two began to explain.

"Counselor Diaphtora is one of the newly announced Counselors after three ones quitted their job about one year ago. He is said to be quite powerful and has an impressive charisma, Takao and I met him once before." Masaaki explained.

"I heard he was a member of the rune knights before. And he was famous for his analytic abilities and his logical reasoning. Am I right Master?" Takao went on.

Hisao nodded. "Yes that's what I heard and noticed today as well." he said. "The problem is that he wasn't convinced by my speech, he thinks that it is a fault to weaken or forces by sending our mages to the east because of what I heard and seen. And he was right, the Dream Sight Magic is not to one hundred percent reliable. Instead of doing what I suggested he purposed that we would have to finally do something against Zeref. And, what is problematic for us, he just got information's about Zeref's actual hiding place. After presenting that nearly everyone voted for his plan and the Chairman gave him the command about the Councils forces as well as the lead about the guilds forces during the mission against Zeref." he finished and leaned back on his chair.

No one said a word until Masaaki hit on the table, which made enough noise that everyone's attention went back to the talk.

"Is Diaphtora insane?!" he called with an unbelieving voice and small lightnings crackled through his hair what always happened when he was angry and forgot to control his magical power.

"We have more than enough hints that our theory is right, how can he act like this after hearing your explanation?!"

"Well it is bad for us, but if you look at it from an other point of view it's good as well." Takao said calm. "If he really is able to take down Zeref by that it's a huge win for everyone. But you are right the reappearance of Zeref comes to the worst time for us. We could have needed the support of everyone..."

"Master?" Mizuki asked after Takao was finished.

Hisao looked at her. "What is it Mizuki?" he asked.

"You said before he was able to convince nearly everyone, does that mean that we still managed to get someone on our side?" she asked him hopeful.

Hisao began to smile. "Yeah that's right. An old friend of mine joined our plan. You maybe remember him, it's Master Aljuni of

Aurea Lion." he told them.

The eyes of the three mages widened as they heard his name. "Mr. Aljuni is going to join us?" Takao said with an unbelieving voice.

"Yes," Master Hisao said. "He decided to help his old guild mates out, we are going to meet us tomorrow in the morning to talk about our further actions. I would like to include you in the talk so please prepare your communication lacryma for tomorrow morning." he said, but it sounded more like an order, so the three just agreed silently by nodding.

"Good, then I'll call you tomorrow!" he finished.

"Yes, sir!" the three mages said and turned off the lacryma.

"Even though we have Master Aljuni's support, it will still be damn hard, don't you think? Takao said after a while.

Mizuki nodded and Masaaki grinded his teeth. "If I get my hands on that Diaphtora I'll kick his ass!" he said still angrily.

Takao smiled "I'll join you!" he said. "But for now calm down and please do something against these..." he pointed at the lightnings which crackled through Masaaki's hair all few seconds.

Masaaki grabbed into his hair to get what Takao meant. "Oh!" he said as he noticed what he meant. "Sorry..." he said and the electricity wore off immediately and the magical pressure which had layed down upon the whole bar lifted again.

"Thanks..." Takao said relieved and looked at his drink. "So how do we go on?" he asked.

"I would suggest that we…" Mizuki suddenly stopped talking and looked behind Masaaki. The two boys turned around as well. The whole bar was totally silent and behind them stood a young brown haired woman. She was about 1.70m tall and wore a long deep green dress with a big brown belt. As the mages noticed her stepping to them she blushed and began to knead her hands nervously.

"Ehm excuse me…" she said with an insecure voice. "Can it be that you three are… mages?"

Mizuki smiled at her. "Yes we are, I'm very sorry if my friend here," she gave Masaaki a dark glance, "scared you, we didn't want that. He sometimes just forgets to pay attention to his use of magic." she explained and kicked Masaaki under the desk.

"Ehm yes,...sorry for that…" he said smiling. "My name is Masaaki Yuu Veristia and these are my friends and partners Takao Seeken and Mizuki Soramillion." he introduced himself and the others to the young woman.

While they talked the people in the bar began to talk silently excited. The girl also began to smile and you could see how the nervousness against the mages slowly disappeared. "My name is Emiko Caritas." she said and bowed down a bit. "Does the fact that you are mages mean that you came here because of our request?" she asked hopefully.

The three mages looked at each other confused.

"Actually no…" Takao said truthfully, "I did not see a mission from around here at the guild when we left some time ago…" he thought for a second. "I can't recall that we got one in the last months, do you?" he asked his companions. They shook their heads after a few moments. The confidence which the girl had seemed to vanish from on second to the other and she seemed to was about to cry.

"Hey," Takao said immediately as he saw her reaction and layed his hand down on her shoulder. "That's not a reason to cry." he said. "Why don't you sit down and tell us about that request. What was it about, where did you send it?" he asked her gently.

After a moment she nodded and sat down next to Takao and took a deep breath before she began to talk.

"About two month ago there vanished a small group of people who passed Clover. We send a small group of volunteers after them to look if something happened to them but except one of them, no one came back. The one who did was completely out of mind, he said that they were attacked out of the shadows. Everyone would have been taken away and he was only barely able to escape. After we heard that we send a request for help to the council. We spend nearly all our money so that the reward would be high and that it would be spread to all guild in Ishgal so that there would come someone soon…" she stopped and wiped over her eyes. "But, for one and a half months now, we didn't get any respond. And now… well I hoped that finally somebody came to help us, but it seems that you did not come here for that…" she said finally and nobody dared to speak a word. Takao looked first at Mizuki then at Masaaki. "Guys…" he said, "don't you think this," he looked at Emiko "sounds quite like what we were looking for?"

Emiko looked at him confused.

"Yeah… I agree:" Masaaki said and began to smile.

"Guess so." Mizuki agreed, as well smiling.

"What do you mean?" Emiko said insecurely.

Takao looked into her eyes. "That Emiko, means that we accept your request and help you and the town!"

As Emiko got what he just said she began to smile and suddenly hugged Takao who made a surprised face, which made Masaaki and Mizuki burst out in laughter. Emiko let go of him just the moment later and the color of her face turned into a deep crimson. "Sorry…" she said, and she sounded like the whole situation became extremely embarrassing in a second.

Takao didn't know how to react either and just began to smile. But he didn't have to because just the moment later the whole bar was cheering. The four looked around themselves surprised until the got that all of them were listening to what they said just a few moments ago.

"Looks like we've got popular!" Masaaki said joking with a blink in his eye.

"Sure does!" Mizuki agreed him before the villagers surrounded them and dragged them to the bar where the barkeeper gave everybody a drink for free. As everybody got a drink a man climbed on top of a chair and everybody became silent.

"In the name of Clover Town, I want to thank you for helping us so I guess this one should go… ON THE MAGES!" he called and the whole bar answered.

"ON THE MAGES!"


	9. Meeting Mr Cordes

Autors Comment (this time at the beginning):

Here, as promised, are the next chapters. I will try to upload up to two chapters each weekend starting today, but I can't promise that I'll get this done. In the end it'll come down on how much I'll be able to write each week but I promise I'll do my best. For now, have fun the new chapter.

A long forgotten Story

-8-

Meeting Mr. Cordes

It was nearly 8 'o clock when Masaaki opened his eyes and stood up. Light from outside flooded the room through the window and made Masaaki blink a few times before he could really see something. He dressed and stumbled across the big living room into the bath.

When he left it about fifteen minutes later he knocked at Takao's and Mizuki's doors and called "Wake up! Work to do!" to make sure they stood up. He turned around and walked downstairs into the big dinner room. It was a big room which one huge round table in the middle and many chairs around it. On the right side was a door which most likely lead to the kitchen. Just the moment he came in the door opened and the young woman who gave them their keys yesterday entered the room with a stack of plates in her hand.

"Good Morning Miss." he greeted her friendly.

"Oh!" she said surprised and turned towards him. "You're up already?"

"Looks like..." Masaaki answered and looked down on him. "But the others are still sleeping, well more or less. Can I help you?" he asked her.

She mustered him for a second, then she began to smile. "Oh course, the kitchen is right behind that door." she said and Masaaki headed straight there. A few minutes later the two had prepared everything for breakfast and sat down at the table together.

"Thanks for helping." the woman said and gave him a cup of coffee.

"No problem." Masaaki said and drank a bit. "By the way, I forgot to ask you, what's your name?"

The young woman laughed at his question but as she calm down she answered. "Anni, my name is Anni." she said. "But now to you, I normally don't ask names but when we are already at the point, what's yours?"

"Masaaki, well sometimes also Raiden but I don't really like that name so just call me Masaaki." he answered laughing and stretched out his hand. "Nice to meet you, Anni."

Anni smiled as well and they shook hands. "Nice to meet you too, Masaaki."

"Ah and the two are Takao and Mizuki." Masaaki added fast.

"Good to know." Anni said. She looked at the table and mustered the bread. "I think I should better go buy new bread, I don't really think that that is enough for four persons, don't you think so?" she said.

Masaaki took a look at the pile of break in the middle of the desk and thought for a moment. "I think you're right..." he said laughing and scratched his head. "If you want me to I could..." he said but Anni shook her head.

"No you've helped me enough already, I go. But if you are so eager to do something I'd say go and wake your friends. I'll be back in less then half an hour." she said and stood up.

Masaaki stood up as well, "Ok I'll do that" he said and walked upstairs to wake his friends but as he arrived he saw that that wasn't necessary anymore. Takao's room door was wide open and he heard the water of the shower through the closed bathroom door. And as he reached the last step the door of the other bath opened and Mizuki came out, with a towel wrapped around her hair.

"Good morning Masaaki" she greeted him smiling and went over to him.

"Good morning Mizuki." he greeted back. "Dinner is nearly ready. Anni... The girl from the reception..." he added as she looked at him confused, "is just walking over to the bakery to get some more bread, then we can eat. She'll be back in a couple of minutes."

"Good!" she said and clapped on his shoulder. The door of the males bath opened and Takao came out, his hair already dried. "Oh perfect," Mizuki said and clapped her hands. "Takao could you..." she said and pointed at her hair. Takao rolled his eyes and activated his magic. For a moment there appeared two dark blue markings on his face and he made a small move with his hand. The water from Mizuki's hair floated away into the bath, leaving her hair dried. Then the marking disappeared again.

"Thanks!" she said and walked downstairs, the boys following her.

They sat down at the table and got themselves a can of coffee until Anni came back a couple of minutes later.

"We... Are back!" she called and came into the dinner room, followed by Emiko.

"Look who I met at the street, she told me you know each other?" she said.

"Oh hello Emiko!" Takao said surprised as he recognized her. "What are you doing here?" he asked.

"I persuaded her into coming with me." Anni answered before Emiko could say something.

"I told her about my new three guests and mentioned your names and then she told me that she would know you. She actually told me quite a lot about you guys. Is it right that you are going to take the request we send to the Council?" she asked interested.

"Yeah it is." Mizuki told her as the two young women sat down at the table with them.

"Then I can only say, thank you! You have to know my brother was part of the group that disappeared. Please help him..." she said.

"Of course we will!" Masaaki said smiling, "We'll get this done in no time!"

"Yeah we will!" Takao agreed him and they bumped fists. "But now, let's eat!"

After about one hour the five young people were done eating and cleaning the room.

"So, what are we going to do now?" Masaaki asked after a while.

"Emiko, you said yesterday that one of the men came back from the searching party, didn't you?" Mizuki asked the brown haired girl. She nodded in response.

"Then I would say, we'd go meet that men and talk to him. Then we inform the Master and make a plan, you agree?" she asked.

"Yeah!" the two other mages said synchronically.

"Emiko do you know where he lives?" Takao asked her and she nodded.

"Sure I'll bring you there!"

A few minutes later the four left Anni's Hotel and went through the town. Whenever they met someone on the street the three mages had to stop, because everyone asked them if the rumors were true. After the mages confessed it was, they thanked them and wished them good luck.

"Looks like we got all famous over night!" Masaaki said laughing after a while and the others agreed with him. Short time later the four young people arrived at a small brown house.

"That's it." Emiko said and knocked at the door.

"Who's there?" a male voice called from the inside.

"It's me, Emiko. And three friends of mine which would like to talk with you. Can we come in?" she said.

"Yeah, yeah come in." he answered. "It's open."

Emiko pushed against the door and it swung open. The four entered the room. It was a warm light flooded room on the walls were multiple bookshelves and paintings and in the middle stood a big table. The table itself was full of books and behind that they could recognize a small man. He wore a slightly to big, heavy leather jacket together with brown trousers. His dark hair stood away from his head, as if he would have been hit by a lightning.

"Please sit down," he said to the group as he looked up and pointed towards the chairs. "I'm sorry for the mess, especially this book pile here, at the moment I can't really do much." he said laughing and rose his left arm. Under the jacket you could see many white bandages.

"No problem." Mizuki said and the four sat down.

"So..." Mr. Cordes said after a moment and closed his book. "You wanted to talk with me, right? I'd guess about the incident, more then a month ago, am I right?" he asked them.

"Yeah that's right Mr Cordes, we would like to hear from you what happened back then so that we can make a plan how we can help." Mizuki answered his question.

Mr. Cordes began to smile. "So it is true what they talk in town, three mages which came to help us even though no one else does. And by the way, please call me Shuji, I don't feel that old that you'd have to address me by my last name."

"Oh I haven't introduced you right?" Emiko said suddenly. "These are Mizuki, Takao and Masaaki... Sorry..."

"No problem." Shuji said. "Sooo where should I begin..." he mumbled. "Ahh yes... Tea! Tea, then story, Emiko will you help me for a moment?" he asked the girl which was looking at him confused, but the others did as well.

"Eh, yeah of course..." she said and followed him into the kitchen. The three mages exchanged surprised look and after a minute the two came back. Emiko gave everyone a cup of tea and sat down as well.

"There's nothing better then tea and a story!" Shuji said. "Sooo..."

"Ehm excuse me?" Masaaki suddenly interrupted him.

"Yeah?" Shuji asked. "What is it?"

Masaaki looked at his partners. "I'd say we call the master as well, I'm sure he will be interested in this. And he haven't told him yet what we found out yesterday as well..." he said to them.

"Ohhh right, we forgot that... Mizuki do you have the lacryma here?" Takao asked her.

Instead of answering, Mizuki grabbed into her bag and took out the small crystal. She placed it on top of the highest pile of books and activated it.

"What is that?" Shuji asked them interested.

"It' a device that helps us communicate with people who are far away." Masaaki explained. "Let's put it on full materialization..." he said and touched the crystal again. The light became more intense and flooded the whole room.

A moment after that Master Hisao appeared, but not only his face, but his full appearance which stood now half inside the table.

"Good morning young ones, what is it?" he asked. Then he noticed Emiko and Shuji. "Oh who are these fellows?" he asked his mages surprised.

"These are friends of us, Master Hisao these are Emiko and Shuji, guys this is our guild master, Hisao Peristian." Masaaki introduced them to each other.

"N-Nice to meet you..." Emiko said and Christian agreed nodding.

"Nice to meet you too." Hisao responded then he looked at his mages again. "So why did you call me?" he asked them. "Did you find out something already?"

"Indeed we did." Takao said proud and Master Hisao's eyes widened interested.

"You even exceed my highest expectations young ones, please go on." he said proud but before either one of the mages could say something, someone knocked at the Hisao's door. He turned around.

"One moment." he said and stepped out of the picture. The mages waited patiently while they heard their master walking through his room and opening his door.

"Oh you're here already." he said surprised. "You've got just the perfect timing, I'm talking to 'them' right now!"

The door closed and they heard two people walking back to the lacryma. The three looked at each other surprised and waited for the person to show itself.

Just the moment later, Hisao's hologram appeared at the table again and right next to him Master Aljuni walked into the scene.

"Good morning, friend. It's been quite a long time." he greeted them smiling.

"Master Aljuni!" the three said surprised.

Master Aljuni looked around and stopped at Emiko. "Oh a beautiful new face!" he said charming and Hisao and the other mages rolled their eyes, only Takao suddenly glanced at him angrily. "I'm Master Aljuni, but just call me Wisam." he said with a twinkle in his eye. "What can I call you, Ms. Beautiful?" he asked.

"E-Emiko." she answered him and blushed.

"What a wonderful name, and so suiting for such a beauty..." he said and smiled.

Before he could flirt any more Master Hisao interrupted him.

"Master Aljuni?" he asked.

He looked at Hisao fora moment before he realized what he meant. "Oh yes… sorry…" he said and looked at Masaaki, Takao and Mizuki again. "Please you wanted to say something, I guess…" he said smiling.

"Yes…" Masaaki said after a moment. "after we talked yesterday Master Hisao, we met Emiko. She told us about a strange incident that happened here about one and a half months ago. She said a small group of people had disappeared on their way to the north. They had send out a a searching party to find them. Shuji here was part of the mission." he looked at Shuji directly. "Can you tell us what happened exactly to you and the rest of the searching party?" he asked him gently.

Shuji remained silent for a moment before he began to talk.

"We… were 20 people which had agreed to go searching for the group that had disappeared. We decided to go the same way as they had most likely done. We arrived at the edge of the forest about two hours after we departed from Clover. As we entered the forest… we kind of had the feeling as if something was watching us. For along time nothing happened but… well I guess it was just my imagination but I always had the feeling as if the forest would have become darker the further we got in there." he stopped and you could clearly see how a shiver ran down his back.

"Suddenly we heard a crackling sound in the woods, we called out who would be there but there was no answer. We were sure that it was a human, from the sound it made, it sounded like someone running through the deep wood. The next moment someone screamed. We whirled around but he was gone, only the spear he wielded layed on the ground. The next moment the second one disappeared. A made a circle to protect us, but we didn't even see what took our friends away. One after an other disappeared suddenly and the only thing we saw were floating shadows and the only thing we heard were the screams of the men and the sounds of things falling on the ground.

After more then half of us were gone we screamed retreat, we ran away but I was the only one who made it even though just barely. I felt someone grabbing my shoulder while I ran. I didn't look at it I just hit back without stopping. I hit it and thanks to that I was able to escape… you know what happened after that…" he finished his story.

They nodded and Emiko went on with the story. "After Shuji came back we prepared a request to the Magic Council where we asked for help. We used all our money to get the priority and the rewards as high as possible but no one came until Masaaki, Takao and Mizuki arrived…"

"As she mentioned, Master Hisao, we decided that we will go looking for that something that took all these men away. We are quite sure that there is a connection between this incident and what you told us about and send us out to find. Maybe it is even the same." Masaaki explained him.

Master Hisao nodded slowly. "Yes do that…" he said thoughtful and scratched his beard. after a moment he looked at Master Aljuni. "DO you remember your guild getting a request from around here in the past two month?" he asked him. "Because I do not… and normally every request is send to every guild as long as it's not made for a specific one."

"Neither do I…" Master Aljuni said after a moment of thinking. "I wonder if it even reached the Council, or if it was taken on it's way here…" he said and gave Master Hisao a you-know-what-comes-next look.

Hisao nodded, "Yes I think so too." he said and looked at his subordinates. "You go and find the kidnapped citizens and the one who is responsible for it. Master Aljuni and I are going to find out what happened to the request." He made a small break and looked at Masaaki who looked as if he was thinking about something else and not about what was talked in the room.

"Masaaki, as I know you, you already have some kind of crazy idea for that, don't you?" he asked him.

Masaaki's mind seemed to enter reality again as he looked at Hisao and gave him an evil smile. "Indeed I have…" he said and looked at Takao and Mizuki. "The people are most likely still inside the forest together with the criminals, because it's such a large area that it would take ages to search through it. That's why I would suggest, let's do it like the other members of the searching party. Let's get kidnapped by those guys. They will take us to their base without even realizing that we are not just some travelers, but mages. When we arrive, we'll find out what happened to the others and in the end we'll bust them from the inside. What do you think?" he asked his friends with an evil smile.

"It's dangerous…" Takao said slowly, "but it might work just perfectly, I'd say let's do it!" he added after a moment smiling and bumped fists with Masaaki. Mizuki rolled her eyes.

"Since I know that it is hopeless to try to convince you to stop that ridiculous idea, ok I'm in." Mizuki agreed,

"Good," Master Hisao said calm. "Contact us as soon as you are back… I wish you good luck and come back safe and sound."

"We will!" Masaaki promised. "And good luck for you too." he added.

Hisao nodded. "Goodbye" he said and turned the communication lacryma off. Mizuki took it and put it back into her bag, then she stood up and the other did too.

"So…" Emiko said after a moment, "when are you going to go?"

"I'd say right now… what about you?" Mizuki asked her comrades.

"Yeah!" Masaaki responded.

"Agreed!" Takao said.

"Then please let me come with you…" Emiko said suddenly.

For a moment none of the mages said a word.

"Emiko, I know that you want to help and I know that you want them to be back at the village soon, but this is extremely dangerous, even in our company…" Takao tried to explain her. "I don't think we cold garantuee you that you come back unhurt."

She took a step forward and looked him in the eye. "I know, but still… please let me come with you. I'm sure I could help…"

For an instant she looked at Shuji and gave him a mysterious look, which Takao couldn't recognize. Shuji seemed to understand what she wanted to tell him by that and looked away without saying anything.

"Even though I don't like it either Takao but in one point she is right…" Masaaki said suddenly. Takao looked at him with wide open eyes. "She could help us to get the trust and the support of the other villagers which are maybe still hold capetative at the camp."

"I agree as well…" Mizuki said and the two mages looked at Takao, waiting for him to make a decision.

"You decide…" Masaaki told him and Emiko gave him a begging look as well.

Takao took a deep breath. "Ok, you can come with us." he said. Mizuki and Masaaki began to smile and Emiko hugged Takao who had a surprised expression on his face immediately.

"Thank you!" she said happily.

"Now then!" Masaaki said and clapped his hands. "Let's go!"

"Yeah!" the others agreed and the five people went towards the door.

"I'll come with you until the edge of the town." Shuji said at the door as the others wanted to say good bye. They went outside and waited a moment for him to close and lock his door.

It was already mid day by now and the town was full of people and the more the five passed by, the more began to follow them. When they finally arrived at the northern edge of the town the group could as well has counted one hundred people and still more people arrived every minute. Masaaki, Takao, Mizuki and Emiko looked at each other and couldn't stop themselves from smiling a bit.

"They are really amazing, hun?" Masaaki said silently.

"Sure are…" Mizuki agreed him.

"Well then…" Shuji said and stretched out his hand towards Masaaki. "Good luck, come back safely."

"We will!" Masaaki said and shook hands with him.

Shuji went over to the others and said by to them as well, as he stopped at Takao he also added something. "Take care of Emiko, will you?" he asked him.

Takao looked at him surprised and began to smile. "I will, I promise." he vowed.

Shuji nodded and went over to the other villagers.

"Good bye everyone, we'll be back soon!" Masaaki called out loud and waved his hand in the air.

"Bye!" Mizuki called as well.

"See you soon!" Emiko called.

The people of Clover Town cheered and wished them a good bye as well before the four people turned around, facing the road in front of them. They looked at each other.

"Let's go!" Masaaki said and the four set in motion.


	10. When everything fades to black

A long forgotten Story

-9-

When everything fades to black

It took more then two hours until the four young people saw the forest. The sun was still high in the sky but you could see how she, slowly but steady, went down. They stopped and looked up in the sky for a moment.

"Let's go through the plan once more." Mizuki said after a moment.

"Ok," Masaaki said and began to explain the plan again. "We are going into the forest now to get ourselves kidnapped. When we are, we'll let them take us to their base, where we'll find out about the whereabouts of the other kidnapped people. But in order to not get our cover blown, we can't use any magic. Otherwise we'll get everyone in much bigger trouble. So no magic, and also..." he made a small break. "Nothing that could relate us to the use of magic..."

"Like the communication lacryma..." Takao said calm.

"Not just that..." Masaaki said and his tone suddenly changed. He took a deep breath, unbuttoned the top three buttons of his shirt and exposed his golden guild stamp of Peristia Heart, which he beard on the right side of his chest.

"That means this as well..." he looked at his friends. "I don't want to do it either," he said as he saw Takao's expression, "but we can't effort to be found out before we are ready..."

Takao and Mizuki nodded slowly.

„What is that?" Emiko asked, since she had never seen one before. Takao turned towards her and looked her in the eye.

„It's called a guild stamp..." Takao said to her her with a sharp voice. „When you enter a guild you are going to get a so called guild stamp. This stamp is formed like the sign of your chosen guild. This stamp then is placed on a part of your body. It is the absolute proof of that you are a part of that guild, that family. It is what connects you and everyone in the guild. It is the vow to protect your friends and your family from dangers. It is the bond that you can always relay on. It is what says, here look at me, I'm part of Peristia Heart, I am proud of it and I am not afraid to show it!"

Takao then turned back to his friends and Emiko only looked down and said nothing.

„But still, Masaaki is right..." Mizuki said silently. „And believe me, no one of us wants to erase it, but if we want to help the villagers we have no other choice. You know that."

Takao nodded slowly and put down his bag.

„Then let's just get over with it right now." he said and went over to Masaaki. His friend nodded at him and Takao placed his hand on his guild stamp. He closed his eyes and activated his magic. After a blink of an eye Masaaki's guild stamp began to glow and Takao opened his eyes. „Release!" he called and pulled his arm back. Masaaki felt a short moment of pain and winced unconsciously. The pain was gone just as fast as it had occurred and Masaaki looked down on his chest. Where his guild stamp was before only was bare skin now. Without really realizing he placed his hand above the spot and wiped over it.

„Sure feels strange after such a long time... Like a hole." he said thoughtfully.

„How long are you already at Peristia Heart?" Emiko asked him.

He looked at her and thought about her question for a moment. „I entered Peristia Heart together with my parents when I was six years old, so basically fifteen years by now." he answered. „Mizuki entered about the same time and she is nearly one and a half years younger then me. Takao, who is two days younger then me, and his family then entered about one year later. Am I right?" he asked and his friends nodded.

„Well then let's go on." he said and went over to Mizuki and placed his hand on her silver guild stamp on her left leg. „Ready?" he asked her.

„Yeah..." she answered and Masaaki nodded. He closed his eyes for a second, the guild stamp began to glow and he pulled back his arm. „Release!" he called and the guild stamp disappeared just as it happened with Masaaki's before. He went back to let Mizuki go over to Takao, where she repeated the procedure with his blue stamp on his right shoulder.

„Done..." she said and Takao pulled down his sleeve. He took up his bag and turned towards the forest.

„Then let's keep going..." he said and the others agreed him. They took up their things and went after him. Until they reached the forest no one dared to say a word and everyone was in a depressed mood, due to the loss of their guild stamps. As they reached the edge of the forest Masaaki suddenly stopped.

„Guys." he said and made his comrades turn around. They gave him a questioning look. He put down his bag once more, stretched out his arm and looked them in the eyes.

Mizuki put down hers as well and layed her hand on top of his. She smiled and then looked at Takao who already went over to them to place his hand on top. The three looked at Emiko and after a short moment she realized they were asking her to join in. She came over and slowly placed her hand on top of Takao's. They closed their eyes.

„In the name of Peristia Heart..." he began.

„We will never stop..." Takao went on.

„We will never give up..." Mizuki said and gave back to Masaaki.

„We will always stand tall..."

„And never back down..."

„This is our promise..."

„Our vow..."

„Our pride..."

„Because we are..."

„Mages of Peristia Heart!" they called together and opened their eyes. With new found courage they began to smile and turned around facing the forest. Emiko looked at them surprised. She didn't know what they had just done, but she thought she would have never seen such confidence and trust in anyone's eyes before. She began to smile and walked over to Takao's side. They looked at each other and put up their bags again and walked tall into the forest.

After a short while the edge of the forest was barely a small light, far away. They were completely surrounded by the trees which seemed to have a dark and threatening aura, the deeper they came into the forest. The path beneath their feet went straight on, but until the horizon there was nothing else to see but trees.

„Shuji was right, the forest really seems to get darker every minute, this gives me shivers,,," Masaaki stated truthfully.

„Yeah... but not just that, don't you feel it?" Mizuki whispered and looked into the woods on the right side, for the blink of an eye.

Masaaki nodded slowly and Takao went over to Emiko, who looked at the two mages confused. „There is a small magical presence in the woods on the right side, about ten meters away from the path. It is following us for a few minutes by now, no don't look at it." he whispered as Emiko began to turn her head in the general direction. She looked at him and nodded.

„Ok, what does this mean for us?" she asked him silently.

He looked her in the eye. „That means you'd better prepare yourself. The show is going to start any moment by now."

Her eyes widened a bit as she took a deep breath. Suddenly a crackling sound came out of the woods on the right side.

Everyone turned whirled around and looked into the general direction of where the sound came from. They tried to discover anything between the trees but they could not see a thing.

„Who's there?" Takao called loud and his hand slowly moved to the grip of his sword, that he carried on the back of hi hip. The only answer that came was the sound of the trees, moving in the wind.

„Seems like it was just an animal..." he said and moved his hand back as they suddenly heard a girl's scream from behind. They whirled around again and Takao immediately scathed his sword. It was a simple and straight katana which seemed to emit a cold, silver aura as the light fell down on it.

„Mizuki!" Masaaki called suddenly. Takao looked into the direction of his friends but only Masaaki was still standing on his left side. Mizuki had disappeared without a trace, not even the bushed at the edge of the path were moving from something different then the weak wind.

„Mizuki where are you?" his friend called but one answer came from between the trees. Takao looked back and tried to find a trace between the logs but he couldn't find anything.

„Mi..."Masaaki called again but suddenly stopped in the middle of the word.

„Did you...?" Takao began to say while he turned to his friend but he was gone too. His eyes widened and he ran over to the spot where his friend just stood a few seconds ago, Emiko immediately went after him.

„Mizuki! Masaaki! Where are you? Can you hear me?" he called and unconsciously he reached back for Emiko's hand but he grabbed into the air. Takao whirled around and saw that Emiko had vanished too. Only a brown headband which she had worn today was laying on the ground.

„Emiko!" this time he screamed the name. Even though it was all part of their plan he suddenly began to panic. He grabbed the headband and whirled around, his eyes flickering from one side to the other like the ones of a trapped wolf.

„Emiko!" he screamed once more as suddenly something grabbed him from behind and pressed something on his nose and mouth. Takao tried to free himself but something restrained his movements. His muscles clenched as he couldn't breath and his sight slowly began to blur. It looked like falling into a deep hole, darkness coming from the sides of the vision field, the light seeming to drift away fast until everything finally faded to black.

„So this is how it ends..."


	11. An old friend

A long forgotten Story

-10-

An old friend

Master Hisao turned around and fetched a cloth from a desk in his reach which he threw over the communication lacryma on the big desk in the middle of the room.

„Tea?" he asked Master Aljuni who sat at the desk, his head placed on his hands, looking against the wall. He looked at Hisao like he was just woken up by him.

„Yeah, thanks..." he answered and Master Hisao walked into the kitchen from where he returned just a minute ago. He placed a can of cold tea and cups on the table and sat down.

„Would you be so kind?" he asked Master Aljuni and pointed towards the can.

Master Aljuni nodded and reached for the can. As his fingers touched it, it was immediately engulfed in flames, which reflected in Master Aljuni's black eyes and made the shadows on his face dance like they were alive. Master Hisao watched it for a few seconds, until the flames vanished.

„Thank you..." he said and reached for the can.

„Wai..." Master Aljuni said but Master Hisao grabbed it as if it wasn't hot at all and filled their cups.

„You wanted to say something?" he asked as he put away the can and took his cup.

„Don't mind..." Master Aljuni answered and took his as well. „So where..." he drank a bit of his tea, „ are we going to start?"

Master Hisao put down his cup and thought for a moment. „We want to know whether the request arrived here at the Councils Headquarters or if it was taken away on it's way here. That means we have to find out where the requests normally arrive when they are send here. If there is a central department, maybe even an archive." he said while thinking. „Meaning we have to find someone who knows about the inner procedures of the Council, someone who can help us and we someone we can trust... Do you have any connections into the Council?" he asked his friend.

„No..." he said and began to smile, „but you have, you remember that messenger you were good friends with?" he said.

„You mean Xes?" Master Hisao asked him confused. „Oh course, but he is a messenger, and not working here at the Councils Headquarters so this won't help us. And I actually do not know where he would be at the moment."

„That's not right, at least not anymore..." Master Aljuni said smiling. „I heard that Mister Xes retired from his position as messenger and got a new position here at the Councils Headquarters just a few months ago..."

Master Hisao's eyes widened and he began to smile as well. „Did you also hear where he got the position exactly?" he asked the dark haired man.

„He got his new position at the Rune Knights place..." he answered him.

„Then I'd say we go pay him a visit." Master Hisao said and grabbed his staff which was leaning on the wall next to him. Master Aljuni nodded and the two headed for the door. They stepped out into the hallway which lead from Master Hisao's chamber to the main building of the Council where the station of the Rune Knights was located as well. The light fell trough the high windows on the right side and the shadows of the pillar made the ground a mixture of white and black lines. It took the two mages not more then ten minutes until they arrived at the Rune Knights station.

From the inside they heard the sound of fighting. Master Hisao looked at his friend and rose an eyebrow. „I somehow have the feeling that our friend Xes does not really fit in here..." he said ironic and Master Aljuni agreed him.

They stopped a few meters away from the entrance. Suddenly they heard a noise which sounded like a running armored person. They turned around and saw a young girl in Rune Knight armor running towards the building. She carried her helmet under her arm and the long dark brown hair waved up and down due to her running.

„Sorry..." she called as she passed the two men by.

„Hey, wait a moment!" Master Aljuni called and the girl stopped and turned around.

„Yeah? What is it?" she asked while catching breath.

The two mage came over to her. „If you allow I have a question..." Master Aljuni began. He looked at her and suddenly seemed to change his mind again. He put on his flirting smile again but before he could do something Master Hisao hit his head and asked the question instead.

„Do you, by any chance, know someone with the name Xes, who works here for a short time by now?"

The girl looked at the two irritated for a moment because of their acting, then she thought about it for a moment. „Yeah, I know him." she said, „why do you ask?"

The two guild masters looked at each other smiling.

„I told you, didn't I?" Master Aljuni said to his friend.

„Yes you did..." Hisao sighted and turned to the young Rune Knight again. „I very sorry but could you do us another favor?" he asked her. „Could you check if he is here right now and tell him that two friends are waiting outside?"

The woman mustered him for a moment, then she sighted. „Ok... I'll do it. I am late anyways. A few minutes more won't change anything." she answered.

„Thank you!" Hisao said and bowed his head. She nodded and turned around, heading for the entrance. A few minutes passed and the two mages began to lean on the wall next to the entrance, while they waited for Xes to arrive. Master Aljuni began to play around with a little flame in his hand, which he had created with his fire magic. Master Hisao looked over to him. He rolled his eyes and pointed with his index finger towards the flame. Suddenly a small white flash rushed towards Master Aljuni's hand and hit the flame, putting it out.

„Hey!" Master Aljuni said and looked at his friend.

„Stop playing around!" the old man lectured him. „That was always your problem, you are just to impatient!"

He wanted to answer as he suddenly heard the sound of footsteps coming from the inside. The two looked at the door next to them and suddenly the doors opened and one of the reptile-looking members of the Council came out and looked around. He wore the classical blue Rune Knight uniform.

Hisao smiled at the sight of his old friend and pushed himself away from the wall. He rose his staff a few centimeters and knocked it on the ground. The Knight turned around and looked at the two directly. His eyes widened at the sight of the two mages.

„It's been some time, Xes..." Hisao said and went over to him.

„Sure was old man." Xes answered and reached out his arm. Hisao grabbed his arm and Xes did so too. Master Hisao mustered him for a moment.

„Besides the armor, you haven't really changed one bit!" he said.

„I'd wish I could say the same thing about you old man!" Xes said and began to laugh. They let go of each other and Xes and Master Aljuni greeted each other.

„So... what are you guys doing here?" Xes asked them after a moment. „Don't you have guilds to lead? Especially you." he looked at Master Aljuni.

„I'd say let's talk about this by a drink, what do you say?" Hisao said and looked at the other two.

„Sure, if you pay." the other guild master said.

Xes smiled. „Good that I already said my commander that I won't come back today!" he said.

„Then let's go!"

The three went towards the exit of the Councils Headquarters and went down to the City, which spread at the feet of the mountain, which the Councils building was placed on. About half an hour later they sat down in a small pub and ordered their drinks before they began to talk.

„So, Hisao, Wisam, why are the two of you here?" Xes asked them.

„Well yesterday all the Guild masters, the Counselors and the members of the ten great holy mages attended to a meeting which our friend here called out." Wisam said and looked at Hisao.

Xes rose one of his eyebrows and waited for the white haired man to tell about the meeting.

"For the past time I felt a strong magical presence in the east of Ishgal. It was strong enough to block my Dream Sight Magic for several days over more then one eights of the country. But still I was able to break through it for a piece of a second from time to time. I saw and heard such horrible things, I don't even want to think of it. And also the criminal rate in the east dropped immensely, as if someone would gather all the criminals over there for a huge plan. I've got the bad same feeling as back then shortly before Zeref began to terrorize this country. That's why I decided to call out this meeting so that we would do something against it..." he stopped and drank a bit before he went on.

"I had already send out my best team. They arrived at Clover Town yesterday and started to investigate there. I hoped that I could support them from here by convincing the others to do so too but Counselor Diaphtora did not agree. He convinced them that the true enemy would be Zeref not some mysterious force in the east. He said that we can't afford to expose our homes like this while the real danger is still around. He as well had evidences about the location of Zeref, which he got just yesterday. Well, he was able to convince everyone but Master Aljuni into joining his plan instead of mine. He was given the position as commander of Councils Forces until the job is done..."

Xes looked Hisao deep into the eye and waited for him to go on.

"This morning we," he looked to Master Aljuni, "got a call from Masaaki, Takao and Mizuki. They had found out about people who suddenly disappeared near to Clover Town. They decided to find out what happened to them. An other interesting fact about this is that the citizens send a request here where they begged for help but up until now nothing happened. Neither Wisam not I can also remember getting a request from there and it was not send to a specific guild which keeps us wondering. So we decided to also go investigate about this since it could be connected somehow to what happens over there." he finished his story and for about a minute no one said a word.

Xes drank up and mustered the two for a moment. "I already thought that you didn't come to me without a reason. You came because you want my help, don't you?" he asked.

"Sharp as ever..." Hisao said. "Yes you are right. We need your help to find out what happened to that request. You have heard our story, will you help us old friend?" he asked.

Xes remained silent for a moment before he answered. "If I would help you, what would it be that you want me to do?" he asked serious.

"We need to know where the request arrive and who is responsible for that. Also we need access to that place and we do not think that they would simply grant us that. So can you help us with that?"

Xes looked at Hisao with a look as if he would try to read his mind. After a moment he closed his eyes. "I have to admit what you tell me is convincing..." he said and gave him a piercing look. "You are right, I can help you with that and that thing with the Request also sounds quite off to me, I've got to admit that. But you have to know, the Council does not like people breaking into their departments. If you get caught before you find out something or even find out nothing that will have consequences on you."

"I know that, but what I saw was real and I know that my friends are in danger if I do nothing so it does not leave me a choice!" Hisao answered determined.

"Good." Xes said calm. "Then I will help you my old friend."

"Thank you." Master Hisao and Master Aljuni said.

"So...what is the plan now?" Master Aljuni asked and looked at the other two men. Xes grabbed into his coat and pulled out a small sheet of paper together with a pen and began to draw a small and simple plan of the Councils Headquarters. After he was finished he pointed on a small building which was located at the back on the left side of the main building.

"This building, the Archive, is where you can find out about every request that was ever send to the Council. The requests are first transported to the Request Department where it get's checked and multiplied. Then one of the requests will get transported to the Archive where it get's saved. The others are then spread by the Council's Messengers. The problem is that in this archive are not only the requests. There is every record over the activitys and secrets of the Council listed, that's why would never get access to it. This means that you have to break in too find out about it..." he explained. "An other problem is that the Archive is constantly guarded by a group of Rune Knights so that no one will get in that easily. We will have to find a way to avoid getting caught, I don't think we can simply knock them out, we would draw to much attention by doing so."

"This means we have to create a diversion so that we'll get in there as unnoticed as possible." Master Aljuni said calm and placed his head on his hand.

"Not necessarily..." Master Hisao said thoughtfully.

The other two gave him a questioning look and he began to explain. "Yesterday at the meeting, after Diaphtora was promoted to the Commander of the Councils Forces he announced a meeting when they would come together to discuss how they will take on Zeref." he made a small break and Master Aljuni nodded slowly.

"He said that they would meet in three days in the evening, so basically in two days from now on. Everyone will surely attend to this meeting, the guild masters, the Counselors and all the attention will be on them. If we manage to let this meeting go until late into the night we can probably get ourselves enough time to break into the Archive and search for the request. So basically I'm thinking of sending one of us to the meeting in two days while the remaining two break into the Archive." he finished his explanation.

Xes and Wisam nodded. "Maybe I can also lower the number of Rune Knights which are protecting the Archive..." Xes said and begun to thrump with his fingers. "I am working as a Rune Knight right now as you see. We are structured like a guild, we have many Rune Knights, then a group of higher ranked Knights and on the top the Commander of the Division. But somewhere in between is someone who is responsible that the work is done. And that's my position. I could try to make a larger number of Knights guard the meeting, after all we all know how important it is. And maybe we have to take a few Knights away from other duty's for that time." he said with an evil smile.

"That'd be great!" Hisao said and looked to Master Aljuni after that. "Can you take part in the meeting for us then?" he asked him.

"Yes, I will." Master Aljuni said and began to smile as well. "Leave it to me."

Hisao nodded and drank up. "Then we will start, in the evening, two days from now!"


	12. The secret in the Archive

A long forgotten Story

-11-

The secret in the Archive

Master Hisao leaned on the outer wall of the Magic Councils Headquarters and watch the sun slowly go down. After some time Xes came out of the building and leaned himself next to the white haired man on the wall and looked at him.

"Is everything prepared?" Hisao asked his friend calmly.

Xes nodded" Master Aljuni has joined the meeting and it began a few minutes ago. The security on the meeting room is strengthened and due to that only three of the Rune Knight Division are guarding the Archive." he explained and Master Peristian pushed himself away from the wall.

"Then I'd say it would be time for us to start too." he said and Xes pushed himself up as well. He nodded and the two men headed for the buildings entrance, Xes taking the lead. While they headed for the Archive they passed by a few members of the Council which Xes greeted friendly. As they were about the change their direction the two waited until no one was around so that they could get to the Archive mostly unseen. After about two minutes they stepped out of a long hallway and stood now outside the main building. The Archive reached into the sky before them, even though it wasn't exactly small it seemed quite little and unspectacular in comparison to the Councils main building.

"I would have never guessed that the greatest secrets of the Council are listed here..." Master Hisao stated truthfully.

"That's the sense of it..." Xes answered silently. As they came near the building three Rune Knights appeared out of nowhere. Two of them crossed their Hellebards while the third one headed towards them, stopping about ten meters away from them.

"This is a restricted area! Go back immediately!" he ordered them harsh.

"I am really sorry..." Hisao said, "but I fear this won't be possible..." Before the Rune Knight could react Hisao took a step towards him and let his left hand rush forwards, firing a bright flash of white light towards him. The Rune Knight was hit and flew back a few meters by the force of Master Hisao's spell. The other two took up their Hellebards immediately and ran towards the two men. Hisao whirled around once and let go of his staff so that he would have both hands free. He gathered more energy in his hands and as they were only a few meters away from him he released it into two more, devastating blasts of light. The two Rune Knights collapsed unconscious on the ground a few meters away. Hisao sighted and took up his staff from the ground, while Xes stepped away from behind him. He looked at the unconscious Rune Knights and shook his head.

"Impressive as always..." he said as he walked over to them. He grabbed into his coat and took out three long ropes and began to fetter them. After he was done he took out a small needle and injected a bright blue substance into their arms.

"What are you doing?" Master Hisao asked and went over to his friend to see what he was doing.

"I am erasing their memories..." Xes explained as he injected the next dose of the substance. "It is something we created some time ago. Basically it's use is not allowed but I say this is an emergency... In this mixture it will erase the memories of nearly the last thirty minutes."

Hisao nodded slowly and Xes injected the last dose of the memory cleaner.

"Done..." he said, put away the needle and stood up. Hisao began to walk towards the Archive and Xes followed him. As they stopped in front of the entrance they looked at the still unconscious Rune Knights a last time, then they opened the door. The Archive was a three floors high building and was more then a hundred meters in length. The whole room was full of gigantic walls of bookshelves which reached nearly all up to the ceiling. As the door closed behind them, rows of magical lanterns activated and illuminated the room slightly, so that they could see.

„I didn't expect it to be this big..." Master Hisao stated calmly, walked over to the nearest wall of bookshelves and placed his hand on it.

„Me neither..." Xes agreed. „But this gives us quite a big problem, how are we going to find a specific document in here, before we'll get noticed?"

Master Hisao knitted his eyebrows and after a short moment he turned around walking towards Xes.

„There has to be some kind of system in here..." he looked around. „I don't think that if the Council members need a specific document they send someone in here who searched for it and brings it to them, as well there is much dust on the bookshelves, as if they weren't touched for a long time while the books are completely free of it..."

He turned around again facing the walls of bookshelves and placed his hand on the tip of his staff. After a second it suddenly began to glow and suddenly it began to emit a huge amount of bright white light which immediately illuminated the whole building.

"That means there is an other way to find a specific document, and then," he looked at his partner, "I'll wonder what that is..."

Master Hisao rose his left arm and pointed towards the other side of the building. The light began to focus on the point and became a straight ray of light which shone down on a two floor high construct on the other side of the Archive. Xes knitted his eyebrows and tried to recognize what was there and as he saw what Hisao meant his eyes widened and he began to smile.

"My old friend, you are a genius..." he said and the two men walked towards the construct. It looked like a circular building with a smaller circular floor on top of it at the back. On the roof of the first floor was a fence placed and you could see a small platform placed on top of it as well as a door which lead on the roof from the second floor.

"Xes, I want you to wait here and to look if there is someone coming..." Master Hisao said as he was about to enter the building. Xes nodded and stopped two meters away from it while Master Hisao dimmed the light from his staff and entered the building. On the inside was basically nothing but a huge empty desk on which layed a few papers together with a feather and ink. 'So this is where the documents for the Archive are created...' Hisao thought as he passed it by. He went straight for the stairs in the back of the room and headed upstairs. He stepped out of the door and walked up to the top of the platform where he stopped at a small podium. Hisao looked around to find something to activate it but he couldn't find anything. He leaned his staff against the fence as suddenly an image pooped out of his memory and he began to smile. He waved his hand from one side to the other and suddenly a dark orange console appeared in the air. 'Just like Mizuki's Archive...' he thought and placed his hands on it. The moment his hands touched the console a small electrical shock ran through his body, making his muscles clench for a second and he got the feeling as if someone was using a telepathy magic on him. He waited a moment for someone to speak through the telepathy as he realized that it was the archive which done that. 'Very interesting... it seems like the Archive works with a telepathic link... he thought.

Hisao slowly closed his eyes and concentrated on what he was searching for. 'A request, arrived within the past two month, Clover Town, people disappearing...' he thought again and again. After about a minute he felt the Archive's telepathy link to send a response. He opened his eyes and saw that out of the podium came a net of orange colored eterano lines which connected the podium with every wall of bookshelves in the building. On the screen in front of him he could see the information that he had given into the system. Suddenly he saw something moving in the Archive, he reached immediately for his staff as he recognized that it was a book, which was flowing on the eterano pathway towards him. He knitted his eyebrows and stretched out his hand. The book flew directly into his hand and opened itself on the exact page. Hisao let his view wander over the page and the more he read the more his eyes widened. As he was done he whirled around and left the platform, heading for the edge of the rooftop.

"Xes!" he called and looked down from the roof to where his friend stood.

The reptile man turned around and looked at him, raising an eyebrow.

"Come here, you need to see that!" Hisao said and turned around again, heading back to the platform. After about a minute Xes stepped out on the roof and walked over to the white haired man.

"What is it? Did you find something?" he asked him and looked at the book which he still held in his hands.

"Yes I did..." Hisao answered, gave him the book and pointed on the page which he had opened. "It is the worst case that Master Aljuni and I imagined... The request definitely reached the Council as you see, but it was never spread. It seems like someone stopped it on purpose..."

Xes eyes widened and looked at the page himself. "This is even worse then that..." he whispered unbelieving.

"What do you mean?" Master Hisao asked his friend.

He looked at Hisao serious, "No one is permitted to stop a request from spreading as long as there are no grave mistakes in the request or it is a task which is definitely impossible. Even a step further, when a request enters the system no one can get his hands on it but the ones who checks it and multiplies it, there are even multiple persons who do this work together to make sure that this could never happen. So who, I'm asking myself, got enough influence to get his hands on this request and even manipulate it..."

Hisao remained silent as Xes finished talking.

"The only persons who could maybe have enough influence would be the highest ranked members of the Council. I fear even you have underestimated the power of our enemy." he said and looked Hisao in the eye with a serious look.

"...We have to inform the Chairman!" Hisao said serious after a moment. "Xes you go recreate the formula so that we have the evidences to convince him, I'll be following you in a minute!" he said and turned around heading back for the podium.

"What are you doing?" Xes asked him confused.

"Just go!" Hisao ordered him with a cold and harsh voice.

Xes cringed from the harsh words and turned around to do what Hisao had ordered him to. The white haired man looked after his friend, "sorry..." he whispered before he placed his hands on the console again and closed his eyes.

'You are right Xes...' he thought 'but this means if someone was able to get his or her hands on this request, that could have been not his first time to do it...'

He focused back on the Archive and once more the telepathic link activated and the eterano pathway appeared in the sky. 'stopped requests, last months, all of Ishgal' he gave into the system and waited for a response.

'Please not..." he prayed silently while waiting as suddenly the Archive gave him a response. He opened his eyes and looked in front of him. His eyes widened and his mouth slowly opened.

"No..." he whispered with an unbelieving voice. Four more books were floating towards him on the eterano pathway. They stopped in front of him and opened up to give Hisao a look on the formulas that he ordered. While Hisao looked at them he made a small step backwards as if he would have been hit.

"This can't be..." he whispered and turned around, grabbing his staff. After a moment he went back to his calm self but inside he was trembling. He stretched out his right arm and his hand was suddenly engulfed in light. It vanished for a second and suddenly four sheets of paper layed in his hands whichs surface seemed to be moving a bit. He placed a one sheet on each pages and placed his hand on the first one. He closed his eyes, activating his magic and after a moment the paper began to recreate the formula. As he was done he done the same procedure on the other sides and took back the copys. He turned around and left the podium, heading for the exit. As he left the platform the books floated back and the console as well as the eterano pathway began to vanished slowly. Hisao headed straight for the stairs and suddenly his hand which hold the copys was engulfed in the same light as before and the copys vanished into his Requip's pocket dimension.

Xes was standing at the table, copying the request in the book that Hisao gave him. He looked up as the white haired man came down the stairs and gave him a questioning serious look.

"Have you found more?" he asked calm as Hisao went over to him. The guild master nodded and Xes let out sigh.

"Damn it..." he said and closed the book in front of him.

"Are you done?" Hisao asked him and Xes nodded and gave him the book and the copy. He took both of them and the two headed for the exit of the Archive. As they left the control room the eterano pathway wasn't completely vanished and Hisao threw the book into the pathway which was floating above their heads. As the book touched it it began to float back into the bookshelf where it had come from while he stored the copy inside the pocket dimension as well.

"Hiding the copy inside an other dimension with your Requip Magic, clever..." Xes admitted as he watched Hisao who only nodded as response. As they reached the exit Xes gave the conversation one more try.

"What are we going to do now?" he asked him.

Hisao stopped and sighted, "We have to inform the Chairman and to convince him. We'll need the Councils support and with this he will definitely believe us!" he said serious.

"What if he is the one who stopped the requests and is behind all of this? How can we know who we can trust?" Xes asked his friend.

"We can't..." Hisao answered him. "But we have no other choice!"


	13. Deep Breath

A long forgotten Story

-12-

Deep Breath

Takao ripped open his eyes and began to caught. He turned on the ground and after a few seconds he took a deep breath then he layed still, breathing hard. Slowly he breathing became normal again and he looked around.

"Not dead... at least something..." he sighted and his voice sounded rough like he had not spoken for a longer period of time already. He slowly stood up and looked at his surroundings. He seemed to be in kind of a small natural cave, only a few rays of light shone through small holes in the wall in front of him and the sound of steadily dropping water drops sounded through the nearly pitch black cave. He walked towards the wall in front of him and placed his hand on it, trying to push it open, but nothing moved so he stopped his efforts soon and turned around now following the water drops. He stopped between who stalagmites in front of a small natural hole where the water drops had created a small puddle. He drank a bit and continued to explore the cave but it was so small that there was nearly nothing to explore anymore, so Takao went back to the wall. He took up a stone from the ground and knocked against the wall.

„Hey, is someone there?" he called while he continued knocking. Suddenly he heard the sound of stone moving over stone and dust fell down from the ceiling. He took a step back and covered his eyes just in time as the wall began to move and bright sunlight fell into the cave. Takao breathed sharp while his eyes got used to the brightness. He slowly moved his hand away from his eyes and looked outside. After a few seconds he recognized the silhouette of a person standing in the new opened door.

"Thank god..." Takao sighted and stepped forwards, "who are you? And where are we?" he asked the person as he suddenly felt something on his skin which was pressing against his throat cold as ice. He immediately took a step back as he saw what it was. The person on the outside hold his own katana in his hands and was pointing with that on Takao.

Suddenly the person stepped forwards and took Takao's arm, dragging him outside the cave roughly and pressed the sword on his throat. The stone door closed loudly and Takao looked at his surroundings. They were on a small clearing inside the forest, right next to a bigger hill. One side of the hill seemed to have collapsed some time ago, leaving a bare stone wall where Takao's cell was placed in. The men, how Takao could see by now, began to push him forwards towards the trees. Takao knitted his eyebrows and looked behind the trees to see what was there. The nearer they came the better he could recognize the contours of a small building which stood between the trees. It seemed to be kind of an ancient chapel, which was at least more then a hundred years old and it seemed like it has not been used during that time, since the roof was partly broken and also only half of the tower was still intact.

The man pushed him forwards until they stood directly in front of the entrance door. Slowly the man moved Takao's sword from the young mages neck. Instead he stretched out his hand and reached for the door but a few centimeters before he would touch it, something stopped his hand. The air began to blur and a magical seal appeared underneath the man's hand. Takao knitted his eyes and watched closely what the man was doing. His hand moved a up a little bit and then turned 180° causing the seal to vanish into the air. He pushed open the door and stepped back, placing the tip of the sword on Takao's back.

"Forwards!" he ordered him cold and Takao looked at him confused. Only as the man pressed the sword more into his back he took a few steps forward. He gulped and looked forwards. He took a deep breath and walked into the chapel. It was truly old, through a few holes in the roof the midday sun shone down and illuminated the building.

Between some stones of the ground spread grass which part partly even reached up to his waist. To his left and right were old pews and about fifteen meters away from him stood an old simple stone altar and behind it a tall dark haired man who had turned his back at Takao.

"Hello?" Takao called and walked towards the man. "Who are you?"

The man slowly stroke over the altar with his right hand and acted like he had not heard Takao's voice. He leaned his head to the right side and slightly backwards as if he would study the wall in front of him.

"A nice one isn't it?" he suddenly said and pushed himself away from the altar and took a step forwards, placing his hand on the wall. While he did that there was suddenly the sound of two hard materials hitting against each other. Takao looked at him confused and as his look wandered down the other mans body he saw a cold silver sword hanging on his waist. It was definitely not Takao's since the other man just had his but this one looked nearly identical. The only differences seemed to be the symbol slightly over the hilt, which showed a circle with five smaller circles on it and a sixths circle in the very middle, and a long scar which covered the middle of the whole blade.

The man suddenly whirled around now facing Takao directly and looking him in the eye. "It really took us a long time to find it, ya' know?" He leaned his head to the left side now.

"So what do you think of it?"

Takao gulped and looked around, still extremely confused by the acting of the other man. He let his view wander through the chapel. From the bright colored windows which showed multiple different scenes and texts, which Takao couldn't really see well since they were extremely covered in dust. Then the tooled frames around the door behind him as well as of the door which he recognized a few steps on the side of the man.

"Indeed beautiful, even though it really seems old and to be not intact anymore. Maybe it could need a renovation soon..." he stated calm and the man in front of him began to smile. He took a step forwards and suddenly turned into dark gray dust. Takao let out a sound of astonishment as streams of this dark dust suddenly rushed towards him and only a few centimeters in front of him the man reappeared out of the dust, placing his hand on Takao's chest and pushing him back. Takao lost his balance for a moment and fell backwards, landing on a chair which seemed to have appeared out of nowhere.

The man took a knee about meter from Takao away and looked at him with his pitch black eyes. "Exactly that not, young boy!" he said fascinated and spread his arms out, pointing everywhere inside the chapel. "Exactly that is the beauty, if you would change something it would immediately loose it's charm. We have to leave it..." he leaned forwards until his face was only a few fingers away from Takao's "untouched..." he whispered and leaned back smiling.

Takao breathed out, he didn't even realize that he was holding his breath, and looked at the man. He was a tall, muscular man and wild black hair surrounded his face. He wore a long black coat with multiple dark gray lines on it. Under the opened coat Takao could see a dark gray cloth which he had wrapped around his waist over the black trousers. His iris was pitch black as well which made them seem to be endlessly deep and around his mouth was a slight beard.

After a moment his face became serious again and he began to study Takao's face. His hand rushed forward and before he could react the man had grabbed Takao's face and turned it to the side so that he could take a better look on it. Takao could feel his heartbeat becoming faster due to the adrenalin which was produced within his body and and made his senses sharper. The man turned his face to the other side and let go of him just a few seconds after that.

"I am quite sure you would like to know where you are right now... I can imagine you may be a little bit confused at the moment so let me tell you..." he said and jumped up. He turned around one time, spreading out his arms again before he stopped before Takao again looking him in the face.

"I... am called Cerberus and you have to know I not really a nice guy, because I may be the one who will kill you, nameless boy." he took out his sword and pressed it's tip against Takao's throat until a small drop of blood went down his throat. "But I actually don't really want to do that you know?" he said and took away his sword, taking a step towards him again. "I simply want you to do me a little favor, a little piece of work which won't harm you or anyone else... Will you do that for me nameless boy?" he asked and looked at him with his pitch black eyes. "I you do... and if you don't be causing me trouble, I will let go go after wards...I promise!" he stretched out his right hand and waited for Takao to agree.

Takao gulped again and slowly moved his right hand towards Cerberus's left one. The black haired man began to smile and shortly before he reached his hand Cerberus stretched out his own, grabbing Takao's and turning it around in a fast motion. Before Takao could react the man made a long cut in Takao's hand as well as in his own so that they both were bleeding. He let his sword fall down and grabbed with his left hand Takao's right hand and pressed it against his won right one.

"Perfectly..." he said with an sinner smile on his face "It wasn't that hard wasn't it?". He let go of Takao's hand and fetched the sword from his ground licking the blood from the edge while he turned his back on Takao and heading for the door behind the altar. He sheathed his sword and layed his hand on the doorknob. He looked a last time at Takao as the door on the other side opened and the man from before entered the room.

"Until we meet again, nameless boy. I hope for you that we will do that in peace, otherwise that will be the last moment of your pitiful life! Good luck." he said and began to smile happily as he pushed open the door and left the room, whistling.

The men went over to Takao and passed him by stopping in front of the altar. "Stand up!" he ordered him and Takao did as he said. The man looked at him for a moment, then he took out a key on a chain which he carried around his neck.

"Close you eyes!" he said and Takao did so. For a moment nothing seemed to happen until there was a silent sound, like when someone unlocks a door. Takao knitted his eyebrows and waited for the man to say something. The next sound he heard was the sound of big rocks moving over stone. Takao opened his eyes to take a look on what had made this sound. The men stood still with his back towards him so he couldn't see Takao opening his eyes. What made that loud sound was the altar which had splitted into four pieces which were slowly drifting away from each other, revealing a secret pathway underneath it. Takao immediately closed his eyes again and waited for the man to do something. The altar pieces stopped and the man grabbed Takao's arm, dragging him towards the opened pathway. After a few stair steps the men let go of Takao.

"Open your eyes." he said and Takao did as he said. He looked around and his eyes widened the more he saw. He was standing on a spiral staircase which seemed to be made out of one single stone and which was about fifty meters high. The stairs lead into a huge undercroft underneath the chapel. It was lighted by many torches and in the middle, about two hundred meters away from the end of the stairs, between the huge columns which kept the roof was a perfectly circular platform which was covered by rocks but from the piles of rock next to the platform he could say that about ninty percent were gone already. 'So that is the favor...' Takao thought and looked at the platform more closely and suddenly saw a movement on it. He leaned forwards and knitted his eyes as he recognized persons which were working on the platform, trying so erase the rest of the rocks. He looked at the man behind him for a moment and then went down the stairs until he reached the ground about two minutes later. From down there the undercroft was even more impressive the before, the man, who was still following him, gave him a sign to go further towards the platform. The nearer they came it the more people Takao could see, working on the platform, as well as a group of others who were standing around it in a circle. One of them turned around as he notice Takao and the other men and went over to him.

"A fourth newby, hun?" he said and mustered him, after a moment he pulled a pickaxe out of his belt and gave it to Takao.

"Go and do your work, and don't even think about trying to escape, you won't do it and I am sure Lord Cerberus told you already what would happen then..." he said with a sinner smile on his face. Then he grabbed Takao at the shoulder and pushed him towards the platform. Takao slowly went towards it and climbed up. He looked around, searching for Masaaki, Emiko and Mizuki as suddenly someone place a hand on his shoulder. Takao whirled around to look who was standing behind him and looked into the eyes of Masaaki.

"Thank god, you are here at least..." Masaaki sighted and let go of Takao.

The dark haired mage looked at him confused and followed him towards the other side of the platform. "What do you mean by at least?" he asked his friend.

Masaaki rose an eyebrow and looked at him. " What I mean by at least? Takao you have been away for one day already! Actually even for one and a half, we were captured yesterday and right now it is shortly after nightfall!" he said.

Takao stopped and knitted his eyebrows. "Wait, shortly after nightfall? I was outside just about twenty minutes ago and the sun was high up the sky!"

Masaaki stopped as well. "No it's not, Mizuki checked it, it is definitely after nightfall, what is outside seems to be an illusion so that we will loose our sense of time." he explained his friend.

Takao nodded slowly and the two mages continued walking towards the edge of the platform where Takao suddenly recognized Mizuki and Emiko standing next to a young brown haired man with a huge afro. They arrived a moment later and as the two stopped next to them they turned around and their eyes widened as they saw Takao.

"Thank god you are here!" Mizuki sighted hugged him and stepped to the side. After her Emiko came and hugged him as well.

"Yeah sorry," he said and scratched his head ."Seems like I have been sleeping a bit to long..."

"Doesn't matter," Emiko responded smiling. "But I have to introduce somebody to you." she said and the man from behind her stepped forwards.

"Takao, this is my brother, Walrot."


	14. Walrot Caritas

A long forgotten Story

-13-

Walrot Caritas

Takao's eyes widened as the tall man stopped in front of him and stretched out his hand.

"As my little sister said, my name is Waltor Caritas, pleased to meet you!" he said smiling to the dark haired mage.

Takao began to smile as well and the two shook hands. "Takao, Takao Seeken." he introduced himself to Emiko's brother. The two let go of each other and Takao turned to his partners.

"So what is that here?" Takao asked the others and pointed on the platform behind them. The four stepped near it and shrugged their shoulders.

"WE don't know what it is, nobody does..." Mizuki explained him. "The only things we know are that there is something magical underneath and the second one is that whoever buried it underneath these rocks was damn serious about it..."

Takao knitted his eyebrows and kneed down, placing his right hand on the stones and closed his eyes. HE breathed out slowly and concentrated on underneath the rocks.

"You are right..." he mumbled and Masaaki and Mizuki kneed down next to him.

"What do you sense?" Masaaki asked him curious. Emiko and Walrot looked at each other confused and went over to the three mages as well.

"It is a spell..." Takao mumbled while concentrating further on what was underneath the platform. "...most likely more then four hundred years old... it's a sealing spell if I am not mistaken, but it is so complex, I've never heard of anything like that before..."

"How do you know?" Walrot asked him irritated and seemed to ask exactly what Emiko was thinking as well. Mizuki looked up to him and began to explain.

"It is called a magical sense. If you are able to use magic you have a basic feeling for the magical power around you, we call that the magical sense. If you train that sense you can feel this magic more precisely and also detect hidden spells for example. The more you train and the more talent you have for it it can become extremely useful in all kinds of situations and our little Takao here," she clapped him on his shoulder, smiling, "has an extremely strong magical sense, for as long as we know him already.

His exceeds both Masaaki's and mine, he is even able to tell how long the magical energy is bound in a spell already and he can even feel what kind of spell it is. I don't know how he does it and he said he can't really explain it himself but there wasn't even one time where his sense was wrong so it is really reliable." she finished smiling.

"That's amazing..." Emiko whispered and kneed down next to Takao who had suddenly turned deep red in his face, which made his partners nearly laugh out loud.

"Can I learn that too?" she asked Takao interested and as his face color had calm down he looked at her. "Well that comes down on if you have the genetic disposition to use magic or not, we can try that out when we are done here, ok?" he said to her.

Emiko nodded happily. "Apropos getting out..." Walrot said tense. "I heard that you guys came here to get us all out, is that true?"

"Yeah that's right." Takao answered him while he stood up again.

"Then how do you plan to do that?"

"That is what we will discuss now..." Takao answered him. Masaaki took up his pickaxe, pushed against the Takao and looked to the side, where one of the guards just came around. They immediately began to hammer on the rocks with their pickaxes. The guards stopped and looked at the for a few seconds, then he shook his head and went on. As he was finally out of sight the five people sighted relieved.

"That was kind of close..." Walrot sighted. He looked at Takao who gave him a questioning look and explained. "When we are here we are not supposed to stop working, the guards don't like that and sometimes people get beaten up by them because of that... So how do we go on?" he asked the mages.

"First of all, what do we already know about the situation?" Mizuki said thoughtfully.

"We have a total of about twenty-five people plus ourselves against about ten enemy's..." Masaaki answered her.

"At least one of them is a powerful mage which we actually don't know anything about besides that he is able to transform his body into dust and that he seems to fight with a sword as well as with his magical abilities..." Takao added.

"We can not start the attack from down here, as far as I see there is only one small exit from this place, if Cerberus waits for us there we don't have a chance since we also have to make sure that everybody else get's out of here safely." Mizuki explained Masaaki went on.

"Plus that there is this magical barrier which is placed over this area, we have to deactivate it so that everyone can get out, for that we need to know where it is being casted." he finished and gave Takao a questioning look.

"I'll take care of that." he promised, "So what is the plan?" he asked his friends and looked especially at Mizuki.

She closed her eyes for a moment to think before she explained her suggestion. "I'd say we try to escape at nighttime. Everyone needs sleep and so do the guards and Cerberus, if we manage to get out silently we may even escape without them noticing. Even if they do we can hold the collateral damage as small as possible this way. The problem is how do we get out?" she looked at Takao and Masaaki and the two exchanged a short look.

"I'll do that!" Takao said calm and Masaaki nodded.

"Good..." Mizuki went on. "As soon as you get us all out I would suggest that we split up in two groups. The first group which the prisoners heads directly for the edge of the barrier while the second group deactivates it. As soon as that is done group two follows the first one and we meet again at the edge of the forest." she gave the two other mages a telling look and the two nodded, knowing that they also had to do something else, to stop Cerberus, no matter what and to get out what the platform and the sealing spell underneath were about.

"I'll go with the first group then." Takao said calm. "We could need you knowledge and your archives power Mizuki to undo the barrier and your teamwork with Masaaki is better then with me. I'll take care of the others, you all agree?" he asked them.

"I agree..." Masaaki said to his friend and Mizuki nodded as well.

"Good then this is cleared, all that is left is when we are going to start?"

"If I can say something..." Walrot interrupted their thoughts, "some of us can not bear that amount of work for such a long time and I am really worried especially about two of them, so please let us get out as soon as possible..."he said with a begging look. For a moment everyone was silent thinking until Masaaki said something.

"Takao, how long do you need time for preparations before you can get us out?" he asked his friend.

"Not much..." he said and began to smile after a moment as he understood what Masaaki was thinking about. "IT would be possible..." he added.

Mizuki got it after a moment as well. "On the one side it is quite risky since we don't have much time to prepare but on the other hand we don't have that much time left and also we could overwhelm them by that... I agree!" she came to her conclusion. Masaaki nodded smiling and turned to Walrot.

"Tell everyone, to stay put this night and not to sleep. We will get everyone out immediately." he told him and Walrot's eyes widened.

"Thank you..." he said relieved, "I'll go tell everyone." he then turned around and left the other four to go to the other prisoners.

"We should go as well." Mizuki said and the others agreed with her and left as well. While Takao walked over the platform to a young man who was working not far from him as he suddenly felt a shiver running down his back and felt like someone was watching him. He turned around and looked into the direction where he thought that there would be ther person who had looked at him. He looked around but no one seemed to be looking at him. After a moment he shook his head and wanted to turn around as he saw a sudden movement of of the corner of his eye. He looked into the direction and saw Cerberus standing at the entrance to the undercroft. A cold shiver ran down Takao's back as he stared at Cerberus who was simply standing there, staring back at him. His pulse was rising immediately just by Cerberus's sight. He couldn't tell for sure but he had the feeling as if he was smiling as he slowly turned around and left the undercroft. Takao remained there for a second. "Could he have overheard what we were planning?' he thought while his pulse was slowly getting back to normal. 'No...' he thought and shook his head 'that is impossible over such a long distance, isn't it?'.

He hit his head with his hand to clear his mind, then he went for the man in front of him to tell him about the escape plan but still the uneasy feeling didn't let go of him completely.


End file.
